Onward, Upward, and Upside Down
by TicTactful
Summary: Life goes on for the crew of Serenity: a new crewmate or two, some familiar faces, some unexpected. Takes place after the movie. Part 9 has finally started; the crew has a chance meeting during a routine job.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1: Onward, Upward, and Upside Down**

I.

It was a steamy, sultry evening. Was there any other sort on Beaumonde? The vendors were vending, the hawkers hawking, the hookers were hooking. Captain Malcolm Reynolds had already hustled his crew back aboard Serenity – the last thing, the absolute last thing, he needed at this point was an incident that would get them noticed. A barroom brawl, an irate salesman, anything. Anything was too dangerous. Not knowing whether the Alliance would be gunning for his people or not, Mal intended to duck into port, load up supplies, and be out again before anyone even had a chance to hiccup out of turn.

The crazy person pestering him now was most certainly a hiccup.

"Explain to me again," he grunted, heaving a crate into the hold, "how my acquiring an extra mouth to feed is a _good_ thing."

"Oh, I do wish you wouldn't think of it as an extra body in the way, Cap'n Reynolds." The gangling woman wrung her hands as she got in the way of Mal's aggressive packing. "It's such an opportunity – for both of us!"

He snorted. "An opportunity? Seems to me, most every time someone comes along with an 'opportunity' for me, it winds up with my boat getting shot up, my crew getting cranky, and my bank account staying empty. If you'll excuse me—"

"Oh!" She grabbed his arm with one hand, and began rummaging wildly in the pockets of her vest and trousers. "Oh, wait – do wait, won't you, sir? Where did I put it? You'll want to see this. Honest! Captain, _please_."

He squinted at the grubby piece of paper she pushed into his hand. "What's all this, then?"

"Just some figures I thought you might want to see. What I do, I do for the love of it, sir. But I realize you may well have some more pressing concerns. Like, as in, finances." She blinked up at him with all the innocence of her ingenuous heart – her eyes looked ridiculously huge through the thick goggles she wore. "Those there are the pay-offs for a patent. Mind you, those take a bit of time to come through. And on the right are standard payments for vaccines, antibiotics, other sorts of things folks out there need."

"That's …" He looked at the paper harder, and swallowed. "That's a lot of zeros. Is that the right number of zeroes?"

"All entirely accurate. Straight out of the last Proceedings of the Interplanetary Scientists of the Alliance."

Mal gave her a more scrutinizing glance, then pushed the paper back at her. "I'm sorry, ma'am – but I don't have much truck with Alliance scientists."

He picked up the last box and made to head up the ramp into the ship, but her fingers latched into his sleeve. "Please, captain! That's why I came to you!"

Her eyes were wide, all but brimming with tears. She reminded Mal briefly of Saffron; he shook that memory off as quickly as he could. "You saw the Miranda broadcast, then? Is that why you're here?"

"Miranda?" Her face crumpled; she let go of his sleeve and let him take a step up the ramp. "Do we have to talk about that? I don't – it's too—"

"I'm sorry." Mal sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward. "Look – I don't like hanging around this port any longer than I have to. If you can get yourself and whatever equipment you need on board in half an hour, then I'll take you along. If not – then it's been a pleasure to meet you."

Her delighted grin nearly split her face in two. "All right, then!" She threw her haversack across her shoulders and trotted up into Serenity.

Mal stared up at her from the foot of the plank. "What about your things?"

"No worries, cap'n." She patted the boxes in the hold fondly. "You just spent the last twenty minutes loading it up for me."

…

"Let me get this straight," said Zoë calmly. "You hired us a _biologist_?"

"Not hired, exactly." Mal leaned back in the pilot's chair and stretched his legs as best he could. The chair had been a perfect fit for Wash, but Mal's larger frame was cramped. _Wash …_ Mal moved quickly past the painful thought. "I ain't paying her. Well, I told her I'd keep food in her belly, as long as she turns us a profit. Apparently there's some cash to be made selling supplies and sundries as she can make to the farmers – cures and preventatives for their herds and crops. Not huge, but steady-like. The big pay-off comes if she can find some new bug that survived a terraform – something useful to them other scientists, something she can patent and sell."

River set the controls to the autopilot system and drew her legs up into the copilot's seat to stare across at the captain and his first officer. Zoë reached across Mal and flipped a few switches as they settled into speed. "And we couldn't sell this quackery ourselves – why?"

He sighed. "Well, A, this Fletcher woman makes her own stuff, develops it herself. I had her checked out, apparently she's good at what she does. This molecular business. Number two, it ain't something she seemed willing to sell. She seems to have a bone to pick with the Alliance, same as us, and she ain't going to cry if the outer worlds have something the central ones haven't. And last … well, she just asked so pretty." He grinned crookedly at his lieutenant.

Zoë wasn't having any of it. "Can we _trust_ her, cap'n?"

"Well, hell, no." Mal double-checked River's flightplan; it was perfect, of course. "We need another crazy genius on board like we need a hole in the hull."

"I promise, Captain Reynolds, I am hardly a genius." Mal's newest hand poked her head onto the bridge. "I make as many mistakes as the next crazy person. Oh my stars, what beautiful … stars!"

"Miz Fletcher," Mal gestured. "This is Zoë Washburne, my second in command."

"Please, call me Dr. Fletcher." The newcomer smiled. "Or Marnie, if you're feeling friendly."

"Marnie." Polite but distant, Zoë held out her hand for a shake, which Marnie Fletcher accepted enthusiastically. "Delighted to make your acquaintance."

"The same to you, if I may say so." The biologist cocked her head. "Is that a person hiding under the console?"

"That's River," Mal put in quickly. "She's our …"

"Albatross," said River, with a note of pride.

"Well." Marnie stepped further into the bridge. "Every ship can use a good luck totem. 'Specially such a pretty little one."

River made a face and wrapped her arms around her legs.

Before Marnie could object, Zoë raised a hand. "Not much sense in arguing with her, she knows what you're going to say before you know it."

"I'm a crazy genius," River pointed out.

Mal cut in as Marnie looked at River with interest. "You get your stuff stowed all right?"

"Oh, sure. The doc wasn't wild about giving up a nice little chunk of his sickbay, but I got everything squeezed into a corner real nice." She stretched out a hand. "Is that a stegosaurus?"

Zoë seized the other woman's wrist. "Those stay there," she said, looking slightly embarrassed about her abruptness.

"Of course." Marnie stepped back and shoved her hands deep in her pockets. "Well, Captain … I suppose I should see about getting myself set up proper. Just thought I'd take a peek around, say hello."

"Help him," River prompted.

Mal winked at the girl. "Course she'll help me. Could stand an extra hand keeping food on the dinner table and fuel in the engines."

She ignored him, and stood to speak directly to the new woman. "Help him. Help me. Help me help him."

"Of course, darlin'." Marnie smiled nervously and starting backing down the stairs. "Of course. If, ah, anyone needs me, I'll be getting in the good doctor's way for the intermediate future." She beat a hasty retreat out of the bridge.

"She's good," murmured River, to whoever was listening. "She's a good scientist." She slipped out of the bridge and followed Marnie down the stairs. Mal sighed and swung around and out of his chair, squeezing Zoe's arm as he passed her. He hoped to God he knew what he was getting himself and his crew into.

…

Zoe and Mal got Marnie squared away in one of the extra rooms beyond the common area with a minimum of difficulty. ("Not to worry," she assured them, "Not very many of the mice escaped, and how in the world are they going to survive aboard a _go tsao de_ spaceship?")

Jayne went down to retrieve one of the wooden dining room chairs from retirement when it was time for mess. "About time we had an unattached piece of womanflesh on this boat," he grunted as he shoved the chair into place. "A man has needs, y'know."

"Jayne, don't be such a pig!" Kaylee shook her head as she set bowls out on the table. "Honestly. What if Marnie heard you?"

"I'm unattached," River observed from under the table.

Jayne didn't bother to hide his grimace. "I don't gen'rally take up with girls young enough to be my daughter. Just in case."

"Let alone Zoe," Kaylee continued. "Talk like that's the last thing she needs to hear. She'd probably rip your left arm off and beat you over the head with it, and she'd have every right to it, too."

"Who's getting beaten over the head with dismembered limbs?" Marnie walked into the dining area. "I hope it's not me. Simon's going to be late for dinner, he's busy breaking all of my equipment for now. You haven't stepped on any mice, have you?"

Jayne looked down at the deck with some alarm, but River held out one hand. "Here."

"Goodness!" Marnie palmed the squirming mouse and raised her goggles to peer at it. "The X-17 transgenics! I'd right out forgotten those." She stuck the creature into her left breast pocket. Kaylee and Jayne stared at her, but she waved a hand. "Oh, worry not. There's food in there. Somewheres."

"Did someone say food?" Mal meandered though the doorway, with Zoe close behind. "Whatcha got for us, Kaylee?"

"Managed to scrounge up a few fresh things planetside, Cap'n." The engineer beamingly presented a serving bowl of brown rice to Marnie. "Thought I'd make up something nice and fresh to celebrate the arrival of our new crewmate."

Jayne scowled. "How come there's green things in it?"

"Green things in your nose, too," River said from the floor.

Shaking her head, Zoe pulled out a seat. "I wouldn't worry about the green things so much as the meat if I were you, Jayne. You going to sit up here with the grown-up folks, River?" The girl climbed into the chair next to the first officer.

"I think … the green things _are_ the meat," Mal said slowly.

Kaylee turned pink. There was a pause, then everyone reached for the same time for the tray of processed proteins, leaving the celebrated new crewmate stuck with the bowl of mysteriously colored rice. "It's okay," said Jayne around a mouthful of chow, "you're supposed to eat lots of different colored stuff. To prevent scurvy or something."

Marnie looked up at the ceiling. "Some plants and animals use bright coloration to advertise their poisonous nature. Monarch butterflies, poison dart frogs." She half-heartedly scooped some rice onto her plate.

"How about turtles?" Jayne asked.

"Turtles aren't poisonous." Mal reached across the table for the salt shaker. "They've got sharp teeth."

"You're thinking of alligators. Turtles have shells."

"No, turtles have claws."

"No, turtles are too big too eat."

"Has anyone here ever actually seen a turtle?" Zoe asked. River raised her hand; everyone else studied their plates carefully.

"Maybe the green stuff is _turtle_," said Marnie mournfully.

Kaylee smiled at her captain as she passed a plate of biscuits down to their new scientist. "I think she'll do just fine here, Cap'n."

…

The weeks passed easily. Serenity's crew was in desperate need of a quiet haul, and for the most part they got one. Mice turned up periodically (dead or alive), River got underfoot, Kaylee barely kept the ship in one piece, Simon and Marnie bickered over workspace, Jayne bickered with everyone. It was an entirely shiny time.

Something was bound to go wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: (better late than never). Serenity and all the characters and places and such that that entails belong to Joss Whedon and not to me. Just the words are mine. Oh, and Marnie.

II.

Antigone was an out of the way world, with a vibe halfway between rustic and shabby. Serenity was dropping in on the tiny moon for her second visit in three weeks – the first had been to sell off some scrap metal and Marnie's magical elixir against the horsepox, but this time Mal was after the horses themselves. He gave leave to most of his crew to go into the town for some shopping, and took Jayne out to the cleanest-looking ranch they had scanned during their approach.

The rancher didn't seem wild about selling to off-world strangers, but Mal's sweet talk (and the large gun strapped to Jayne's back) finally convinced him to show off his wares.

"These gotta be the skinniest mares I ever seen," Jayne grumbled as he examined the animal's sunken flanks. "Won't fetch too pretty of a price. Then again, won't take much to feed on the way to market."

Mal scratched his head. "Don't know if we'd do better someplace else. This place is about the least like to pass us along a sick animal."

"Maybe we can pass 'em off as a novelty. 'Serenity Brand Stallions! Guaranteed to snap a leg before you get a week of work out of them.'" Jayne spat in the dirt.

"Hang on." Mal glanced over his shoulder at the rancher, who was talking heatedly with two older men – just far enough from the paddock that he couldn't understand what they were saying. "I'll be right back. You check out those horses' hooves, I swear to God if they go aboard missing a shoe I will hammer Vera into a perfect replacement."

Jayne scowled, but bent to work, muttering alternately about captains who could be replaced and worthless bags of bones. Mal started walking toward the ranchers, raising a hand in pre-emptive greeting. The older ranchers saw him coming, looked at each other, and reached for their holsters. "You gorram quack!" one of them yelled.

"Marnie," Mal groaned.

Straightening up, Jayne wiped his hands on his pants. "Well, now I can't say as that woman's got much meat on her bones, but I'd hardly call her a skinny sack of—"

"_Go!_" Mal swung himself up on the back of one of the horses, half expecting it to crack beneath him. "Unless you think those gentlemen are trying to invite you to their afternoon social."

Jayne cursed proficiently as he scrambled up onto the other mare, kicking hard into her sides to catch up with Mal. They cleared the fence easily, tearing up the dusty soil on their way back to the ship. "Wash!" barked Mal into his handheld communicator. "I need you to get my ship into the air as fast as you can and come save our sorry butts."

"I'm on it, Captain." Zoe's voice was a little too cool, and Mal cringed inside.

"We're on our way. You send a holler over to the girls and tell them their shopping spree is over."

...

"I think our shopping spree is over," said Kaylee, staring down the barrel of a shiny six-shooter.

"Get a move on, little missy," growled the man with the gun. He knocked the monkey-shaped lamp she had been perusing out of her hands. "Your friends, too."

Kaylee glanced at River. "Don't suppose you're feeling feisty today?"

"They're not going to hurt us." River shrugged and allowed one of the men to haul her to a stand.

"Hope you'll forgive me if I tend to disagree with you," Kaylee said as the gun jabbed her in the ribs. "Marnie … it's time to go."

"Hold your horses!" The scientist was busily demolishing a carefully arranged fabric display. "I told Inara I'd try to find her something she could use for curtains, and I haven't half gone through this box yet. Say! Wouldn't this make a right fine tablecloth?"

"Put that down and come along, woman," their accoster growled. He tried to tear it out of her hands but she hung on tightly.

"But I had it _first_! Oh my," she said, catching sight of the gun, "you frontier folk surely do get worked up about your home decor, don't you?"

"Shut it!" The man began shoving the three women toward the door. "This ain't about no gorram curtains. Which one of y'all is the scientist?"

"Why, that would be me – why do – oh!" Marnie yelped as she was roughly handled and her hands roped behind her back by another angry-looking man.

"Why are you doing this?" Kaylee demanded, "what do you want?"

"Our money back would be a good start." The men shoved the women up into the back of a waiting oxcart. "Stopping a charlatan from selling her flimflam to some other poor fools – well, that would be a nice bonus too, wouldn't it?"

...

"Maybe we should just stop landing on planets," said Mal wearily. "Buy a nice farm somewhere. We can keep the cows in the cargo bay, horses in the common room, chickens in Jayne's bunk …"

"I'm sure it's making it a lot easier for Kaylee, River, and Marnie that you stole a couple of horses on your way out." Zoe sighed and looked at her captain. "You have any more bright ideas for what to do next?"

"Not yet." Mal shrugged. "First we got to figure out where they got taken. 'Fore that, I don't know—"

"Captain Reynolds." A voice crackled out of the intercom. "We have your engineer, your scientist, and your …"

"Good luck charm," said River's voice distinctly in the background.

"Well, we've got three of your crew sitting here, and until we see back some of the money we gave you for those rutting vaccines, you ain't going to get them back. And if you're not nice an' fast with that cash, mayhap we'll start stickin' that scientist with the same garbage she gave to our'n horses. Drop the money off at the Red Shed Saloon and we'll see your womenfolk dropped off there safe and sound. You got two hours, captain."

"Gorram." Jayne shook his head. "That woman's just like any other. Going to get us into all manner of troubles."

"She might have some difficulties causing us troubles if she's got the pox first." Mal looked over at his first officer. "You trace the call?"

She raised her eyebrows. "What do you think?"

Jayne groaned. "And here go our butts on the line, yet again."

"You know, Jayne," Mal said, turning to exit the bridge, "the more you complain about sticking your neck out for a lady, the less likely she will be to want to … thank you for the favor."

Jayne processed this for several moments, then stood up ramrod straight, Vera appearing suddenly in his hands. "What the hell we waiting for? Let's go get our girls out of there."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**Thanks for the nice reviews - good to know that people are reading and enjoying! ) **Disclaimer:**I am a poor student, who does not Serenity or any of the characters involved (aside from Marnie Fletcher). Please do not sue me, I have a powerful need to eat sometime this month. 

III.

"There." Kaylee sat back on her heels, tossing aside the rope that had tied Marnie's wrists. "Feel better?"

"Much." Marnie stretched her arms wide and sat back on the old crate. "Well. How long do you think we'll have to stay locked in this cellar before our gallant captain comes after us?"

"Not long," River said. "I'm bored."

"Hmm." Kaylee looked around and grimaced. "Kinda dingy in here for a game of I Spy."

Marnie pushed her goggles up and rubbed her forehead. "Well, I know a song – do you want me to teach it to you, River?"

"Already know it," River said. "You sing it in your head all the time. But sing it out loud this time."

Glancing between the other two women, Marnie laughed nervously. "I declare, River, you are more than meets the eye. Well, let's see, how did that old tune go?"

"_From this valley they say you are going,_

_we will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile_

_for they say you are taking the starshine_

_that has brightened our pathways awhile._

_Come and sit by my side if you love me._

_Do not hasten to bid me adieu._

_Just remember Serenity Valley,_

_And the soldier who loved you so true_."

Her voice was reedy and thin, though she hit the notes true enough. Kaylee's eyes grew wider during the song. When Marnie had finished, she ventured, "Lovely song … heard it once before. The captain shot out the radio that was playing it. Some soldier made it up for the Battle of Serenity Valley, he said, and didn't no one who wasn't there get to sing it. Just warning you … you might not want to sing it in front of him or Zoe."

"I didn't realize," said Marnie, without looking at the engineer, "that they were the only two people at that battle."

Kaylee opened her mouth, then closed it, then open it once again. "Marnie, I—"

"They're coming back," River announced.

Marnie and Kaylee jumped to their feet as the cellar door crashed open. Four of the ranchers came tromping down the stairs, crowding into the cellar. Two of them strode forward, grabbing the scientist by the arms.

"Listen," Marnie began, "the vaccine – it's an attenuated strain of the virus, it's just a weakened form to preserve the crucial epitopes for the immunological response to—"

"Save it," the leader of the abductors told her. "We sent a message to your captain. Asked him to bring us by a cash refund for the troubles you've caused. Told him that if he didn't show up within two hours we might just start shooting this one up with some of the garbage she sold to us."

"He'll be here before that," Kaylee said. "Don't you worry, you'll get what you want soon enough."

"Don't doubt it." The leader nodded to his men. "Get her sleeve, Jack."

"What!" Kaylee stepped forward, only to be yanked back by one of the large men. River sank to the ground, covering her arms with her head and crooning to herself. _River! I need you!_ "You told the captain we had two hours!"

"Well, about that." In an easy motion, he pulled a syringe out of his pocket and jabbed it into Marnie's exposed arm. "I lied."

Kaylee watched in horror as the scientist dropped to her knees between the two ranchers. "Lord almighty!"

"Jack, Collins, you stay here and watch. Let us know how she does and when she starts … failing." He spat on the dusty floor. "I'll be looking forward to seeing her when she looks like my prize stallion. My _former_ prize stallion."

"Told you not to trust these off-worlders." One of the other men smirked. "My animals are still hale and hearty, just as yours would be if you'd listened."

Grumbling amongst themselves, the three extra men disappeared up through the cellar door, leaving Jack and Collins to take up seats on the stairs. Kaylee rushed over to grab Marnie's elbow. "Marnie! Are you – are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," she gasped. Her face was ashen, her pulse racing under Kaylee's hand. "Don't worry yourself, Kaylee."

Kaylee settled herself beside the older woman, squeezing her hand. _Dear Lord up in heaven_, she thought to herself. _And here I was starting to think things were going to get back to normal._

River crept forward, ending up practically sitting in Kaylee's lap. "Everything works out," she whispered. "We help. More than we think, we help." She patted Marnie's knee. "We help."

…

Minutes ticked by. River sat with her spine straight against the wall, Marnie's head in her lap. Kaylee paced nervously across the small room – three strides each way – while the two men on the stairs jostled each other and joked about the spasms that crossed the scientist's face. River looked up at the ceiling. "The songs in your head. Why do you sing like that? I don't know, because you don't know. There are no songs in my head anymore. The stories make me smile, though. But the voice isn't mine."

Marnie craned her neck to look up at the girl. "River … I don't understand what you're saying."

River shook her head, tossing her dark hair violently. She stressed the syllables: "_Help me help him_. I need you, he does, you need us."

"River—"

"Cover your ears," River said loudly, putting her hands on her own head.

"What?" Kaylee and Marnie turned to her, confused.

Gunshots erupted overhead.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's notes:** Glad you guys are enjoying so far! This is the last chapter of the first story arc, but I promise, there will be more, so keep checking back – I hope to have the bridge to part 2 up in the next day or so. Catch you on the flip side …

IV.

The firefight was dying down – if it could really even be called a firefight. Jayne had exhausted all the curses he could think of, and Mal was pretty sure the big man was just making words up now. The ranchers didn't seem to realize that, though: to a man they had either fled out the back door, or simply dropped their weapons and flung their empty hands in the air.

"These ain't bad guys," said Zoe to Mal, as Jayne walked around collecting the ranchers' pistols from the floor. "Just a bunch of farmers trying to scrape out a spot to live on the fringe." She shook her head.

Mal clutched his chest. "Oh my good gracious, the guilt is just tearing me up inside." He grimaced. "No, wait, that's just breakfast. Maybe I'd feel worse if they hadn't threatened to give one of my crew the ever-loving _plague_."

"Well, sir, I just—"

Without warning, a door in the floor burst open. With even less warning, Jayne was hauling two very surprised ranchers out of the hole by the scruff of their necks. "Gimme those," he ordered as he dropped them onto the floor. The cowering men handed over their guns without a whisper. Handing the bag of weapons, he promptly pounded down the revealed staircase, reappearing moments later with Kaylee and Marnie thrown over his shoulders. River traipsed up the steps behind the three of them, her eyes rolling almost audibly.

Jayne placed his precious cargo in front of his captain and managed something resembling a smart salute. "All crew members present and accounted for, sir!"

"I'm fine, too," said River.

"Yeah, well, we saved you last time," Jayne retorted.

"Captain!" Kaylee scrambled to her feet. "These _he chu sheng za jiao de zang huo_ already shot Marnie up with the horsepox!"

"Ugh!" Jayne took two huge steps backwards and almost tripped back down the cellar staircase.

"Which one of you did it?" Zoe strode forward, pointing her gun at the ranchers. "Who the _gui_ did it?"

"Captain—"

"It was Lukas Broad!" one of the ranchers said, twitching under the close proximity of Zoe's gun hand. "But he was one of the ones got out the back door when you all showed up."

"Captain, I'm—"

"Gorram it, woman, shut up!" Mal barked into Marnie's startled face. "Can't you see we're avenging you here?"

"She don't look too sick to me," Jayne said, starting to edge closer again. "Does horsepox just pass on by needles and such, or can you get it some … other way?"

River made a gagging noise. "If he asks you to ride the Jayne Train, say _no_," she advised firmly.

"Now _I_ feel sick," muttered Zoe.

"Captain," said Marnie loudly. "Do I look like a sick woman to you?"

He studied her anger-flushed face. Might have a fever …"

"Sir, the horsepox ain't catching in people. Just … in horses." _As any idiot would know_, her tone implied.

Kaylee stomped her foot into the dirt floor. "You mean you let me think you were dying this past hour, and _now you're not going to_?"

Marnie's angry red got redder. "Well, I wasn't any too sure they wouldn't do something that might kill me for actual if they knew the vaccine wasn't going to do it for them! You wanted I should stick my neck out for the sake of your nerves?"

"Yes! Well, no. But you could have told me!"

Mal steered Jayne's gun back toward the prisoners. The big man licked his lips. "Do you think they're gonna have a girlie fight?"

"Oh, for God's sake," said Zoe. "You two get along before Jayne sprains something ogling you."

Before either woman could retort, the sound of furious yelling reached them through the walls of the ranch house. "Someone's out back," Mal said, motioning to his crew. "Zoe – let's check it out."

…

The scene that greeted them when they burst out the back door bordered on the ridiculous. A dirt-streaked rancher was screaming, yelling, and kicking violently at a dead stallion lying on the ground in the middle of the lot.

Zoe leveled her pistol at him and cocked the trigger. "Now, sir, don't you know you ain't supposed to flog a dead horse?"

He ignored her and continued his tirade. "The gorram thing just died! Just up and died right under me!"

"I hope you ain't counting on word of mouth to sell those vaccines of yourn, Marnie," Mal said. "Because this gift horse's mouth ain't going to say much on your behalf."

"On the contrary, sir." Marnie was making a less than admirable attempt to keep the smirk off of her face. "Why don't you ask this good gentleman his opinion on my meds?"

The rancher sat down hard in the dust, head in his hands. "Damn it all, woman. Wish to God I had a skinny horse now instead of a dead one. May be that I'll have to buy some of that elixir off of you after all." He looked up at Mal. "Sir … I do apologize for the inconvenience me and mine have caused you."

Mal took a deep breath, and attempted to count to ten. "Let me see. You kidnap and ransom my crew, and try to kill one of them for good measure while you're at it, and then realize that the thing that you got all worked up over ain't no thing at all. And you apologize for the _inconvenience_? Zoe, are you listening to this?"

"I'm trying, sir, but I do believe I must be hearing something wrong." She fired two shots into the ground at the rancher's feet. "There. I think that cleared my ears out proper."

"Mayhaps we can work something out," the rancher said weakly.

…

"You know," said Marnie reflectively. "It would be so easy to say, 'I told you so'. I _told_ you so! Well, see, there I go."

"What can I say, you were right." From the stairway, Mal studied the horses, lumber, and fresh food supplies being loaded into his cargo bay. "Science really _is_ a profitable field."


	5. Bridge

**Author's Notes: **I do apologize for the typos in the last chapter. Also for the latest of this addition. Work and a sinus infection have conspired against me. But now, please read, and please enjoy!

_Bridge_

Serenity drifted, on autopilot, through darkest night toward her next destination. Quietly, as if afraid to wake the ship itself, Marnie slipped out of a door, fastening the last buttons as she went. A shift in the shadows made her freeze where she was. "River!" she gasped. "What are you doing there?"

The girl squinted up at the tall scientist. "You rode the Jayne Train." It wasn't a question.

Marnie sighed. "This is true. Don't get too worked up, though, it was a short ride. Turns out the Jayne Train makes an unannounced stop at Premature Station." She snorted at her own joke; River only stared. "Well … you'll get it when you're older, I guess." She turned to go.

"You're afraid of me," River said. Marnie stopped in her tracks. "Because I know who you are. And you know who I am."

"Well then …" Marnie's voice felt tight in her throat. "Maybe you ought to be afraid of me too."

River ignored her. "You're not for Jayne. But you know that."

"Suppose I do, at that. But, hell, a woman's got needs," Marnie unconsciously echoed Jayne's own words of the previous day. "Who _do_ you think I'm for, then?"

"Not Jayne. I liked your song. I made up my own. Do you want to hear it?"

"Maybe later." Glancing around, Marnie started to edge away. "It's late now, everyone is asl—"

"_A bird flew swift and straight and high_

_but broken once, fell from the sky_

_fell into dark and shade of night_

_I caught him then and held him tight._

_I seek to hold and to let go_

_What he knows, I too must know._"

Their stares crossed, and locked together. "Christ, River," Marnie said softly, "you _do_ scare me." Without another word, she turned and fled down the corridor to the safety of her own bunk.

River watched where she had gone for several long moments. "I'll make you understand," she said. "Also, your blouse is buttoned wrong."


	6. Part 2: Chapter 1

**Part 2: "Grace, Too"**

I.

There were a select few things that Malcolm Reynolds hated. He hated liars, drunks who beat their women, and losing men in battle. He hated cabbage, ticks, and the moths that ate his best wool coat. Well, maybe he hated more than a few things. But, at the moment, what he truly despised the most, was getting his periodic physical from Simon Tam.

"Would it be such a hardship, Doc," he said, grimacing, "to warm that damn thing up first?"

Simon straightened up, removing the stethoscope from his ears. "Well, captain, I find that it's just not quite enjoyable enough listening to everyone to complain during their examination as it is. I actually put the stethoscope into the freezer five minutes before you arrived."

"You got a funny way of getting your jollies."

"If you need to feel avenged, just think about how much fun examining Jayne will be for me." Simon opened a cupboard, sorting through the containers inside. "That's all; you're done."

Mal shrugged back into his shirt. "You sure there's no more orifices you want to stick things into?"

"Not at the moment." Simon handed him a bottle. "You'll need to start taking one of these every night before bed."

Mal accepted the bottle dutifully, but doubtfully. "What t'hell is it?"

"Nothing major." Closing the cupboard up, Simon looked over his shoulder. "Something to keep your blood pressure down, something else to stop the ulcer you're starting to work on."

As he pocketed the meds, Mal glanced up at the doctor. "Thanks a bunch. With any luck, I won't be back here to see you again anytime soon."

"Captain?" Simon's voice stopped him at the door. "That Fletcher woman … she's been spending a lot of time around River."

"I reckon it's more like River's been spending a lot of time around her," Mal replied. He straightened his suspenders and finished tucking in his shirttails. "What're you getting to?"

Simon cleared his throat. "It … I just get nervous. We don't know anything about her, really. Who knows why she's really here? I was just wondering if you could find some way to separate them. I don't want to her to know anything she shouldn't."

"Suppose the deck could use a good swabbing. That what you had in mind?" Before Simon could answer, Mal raised a hand. "Now, it's true that we don't know where she come from, or where she means to get to, for that matter. Granted, I do believe she's taken to letting Jayne hump her, so it may be she ain't got a lot of good sense. But we ain't seen nothing yet to indicate she ain't just what she seems. Unlike the last time I took some fresh faces aboard this boat."

His pointed glance wasn't wasted on the doctor. Simon sighed. "All right. I suppose River is at this point probably a better expert than I am on the kind of company she should be keeping."

"Probably so." Mal nodded to the doctor, moving toward the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I got a ship to run."

"Indeed." Simon adjusted the height of the examination table. "Would you be so kind as to send Zoe down next?"

…

Serenity was, for once, running quite pleasingly smoothly. This meant that Kaylee was, for once, quite thoroughly bored – bored enough that cleaning out the cargo bay seemed a winning alternative to idleness.

"Tell me again," Inara said, sweeping another horse dropping into a plastic garbage bag, "why I agreed to help you?"

Kaylee flashed her a winning smile. "Because I'm the cutest, and you just couldn't resist?"

"That may well be." The Companion straightened and stretched out her back. "Then tell me why we had horses aboard this boat again. I thought we decided on no more large animals after having those cattle in here for three weeks?"

"Well, I reckon if the captain doesn't get stuck with cleanup duty, he just forgets what a mess they made in his ship after a spell." Kaylee shrugged. "Also, he couldn't find no takers on those black market beagles." She glanced up at Inara. "Speakin' of the captain … have you and he … ?"

Inara sighed. "No, we haven't. There's never quite a right time to speak of it, is there? First funerals, and then new hires and new missions … never a moment's peace."

"Pretty peaceful right now," Kaylee observed. She grinned. "A fine state of affairs, half of the crew gettin' some and the Companion not in on any of it!"

"I could arrange something with you and Simon, for the right price," Inara said drily. Kaylee laughed, happily scandalized, and threw a (clean) sponge at her head.

…

"Tell me again," said Marnie, "why we are sneaking into the shuttle to have sex."

Jayne peeked around the corner, then beckoned her quickly forward. "Because if you'd had to endure some of the cracks Zoe can make about your manhood after the last time, you'd want to move somewhere a little more private too. Them walls are _thin_."

"I doubt I'd find it much of a problem," Marnie remarked. "I'm surprisingly secure in my masculinity."

"Maybe you oughta try growing your hair longer then." Jayne grinned when she rolled her eyes. "Coast's clear. After you."

Marnie ducked through the portal into Shuttle 2. "Why Jayne!" she said, looking around. "It's almost _too_ romantic in here. I have always had a fondness for exposed wiring and metal grating – how did you guess?"

He crossed his arms. "I said all along we should of snuck into Inara's shuttle, but you said _no_."

"Jayne."

"Yeah?"

"If you're talking, it means your mouth is not doing what it's supposed to."

…

When Mal climbed up to the bridge, River was in her usual spot in the co-pilot's seat, with Zoe at the helm. Also as usual, River was the one actually flying the ship. Mal had asked her only once why she didn't sit in the pilot's seat itself, and the look she had given him had guaranteed he would never ask again. "Doc wants to see you," he said, putting his hand on the back of Wash's – of _Zoe's_ – chair.

"My turn?" she asked, rising and stretching the small of her back. "Fair enough."

"If he asks you to turn your head and cough, run away," Mal warned.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Zoe drawled, giving him a small smile. She turned and disappeared down the stairs.

Mal settled uncomfortably into her spot. "Well, River," he drawled, "what's new?"

She didn't answer, and Mal turned to look at her. The girl was staring fixedly at an unlit screen on her console. "… River?"

Suddenly the screen exploded into red flashing lights. "A ship," River said, her head snapping up. "Coming up fast, coming apart faster. It's _them_."


	7. Part 2: Chapter 2

II.

"Reavers! We have Reavers incoming!"

…

River's voice was high and shrill on the intercom. Inara and Kaylee froze, sponges still in hand. _Strange enough to hear her there, _Kaylee thought, _let alone saying those words_. "What now?" she asked.

Inara took her hand and squeezed it. "Pray, mei-mei" she suggested.

Kaylee clenched her eyes shut and tried to think of the right prayer to say, but for some reason, she kept thinking _Dear Simon_ instead of _Dear Lord Jesus_. Her stomach did a somersault. _Is he safe? Oh God, please keep him safe …_

…

"Disengage! _Disengage_!"

Jayne backed hurriedly away, shaking his head. "Jesus, woman, you got no call to scream. Well, not yet, anyway."

"Jayne!" Marnie glared at him while retrieving various pieces of clothing strewn around the shuttle. "I am not going to wait around with my trousers down for Reavers to come kill and eat me. Don't you realize what'll happen if they get a hold of us?"

"Don't get your panties in a twist, I've got a perfectly good idea." He crossed his arms. "Do you think Crazy up there has always been the one flying this boat? Or that the pilot's chair came with that big-ass hole in it? Course not. Gorram Reaver harpoon speared him where he sat. Our old pilot. Zoe's husband."

The scientist's face paled. "They have _harpoons_?"

…

At the sound of River's voice, Zoe sat up straight on the exam table. "Get these off of me!" she demanded, gesturing at the electrodes and tubes attached to her arm.

"I'm not finished yet," the doctor said. He frowned at the readings. "I'm concerned that some of your hormone levels seem rather high …"

"Gorram it, doctor!" Zoe began removing the wires herself. "There are Reavers out there. You got more important things to worry about than my hormones right now."

"River's flying the ship," he pointed out, as he tried to retrieve the pieces of equipment she dropped. "There's not much either of us are going to be able to do to help. What good is it going to do for you to go stand up there and hover over her?"

Zoe's eyes snapped. "So I'm supposed to just sit here and relax as we may or may not be flying toward our untimely doom at the hands of the _niao shi de du gui_ who killed my husband?"

They looked silently at each other across the table.

…

The reavers were coming up fast and hard, bearing down on the little Firefly. Mal swallowed hard, wondering about the range of their grappling hooks and harpoons. He wished, stupidly, that Wash was here – to say something ridiculous, and then to fly them all to safety.

"I remember something," River said quietly. "When I first came to Serenity, hidden away. The ship spun around and we got away … we can do that again."

Mal looked at her sharply. "A Crazy Ivan? Can you do a Crazy Ivan?"

"I remember," she said simply.

"Well …" He nodded. "Okay. Can't see as we've got much choice, do we?" He pulled down the intercom and spoke into it. "Everybody hang on good and tight, it's going to be one hell of a bumpy ride."

River took the controls firmly in hand, whispering words to herself that Mal couldn't quite make out. Then, blazingly fast, her hand shot out, flipping switches, yanking the wheel to one side. Serenity creaked as the ship spun in place – Mal clenched his fists and hoped that the aging bulwarks would hold together. Oblivious, River smoothly set the ship for a hard burn.

The impact rocked the ship from bow to stern.

A inexorable hissing made itself heard in the cockpit, and an incongruous breeze began rifling Mal's hair. Still barely aware of what had happened, Mal realized what was wrong: Serenity was losing air – and, thus, losing life. "No!"

He brought his fist down hard on the console, triggering the doors to seal shut every compartment aboard. The portals slammed shut, and Mal sank dumbly into the pilot's chair, trying very hard not to think about who might have been stranded in the damaged compartment. Where were Inara and Kaylee? Had Zoe stayed safely in the infirmary? And how badly was the Reavers' ship damaged – would they now find Serenity an easy mark? He realized where he was sitting, and curled his fingers around the chair's arms, half expecting a spike to pin him where he sat at any moment.

River turned toward him. Still in shock, he looked at her open, empty face. "I failed," she said brokenly.


	8. Part 2: Chapter 3

**Author's notes:** Sorry for the long delay! A couple of exams caught up to me … grad school is tricky like that. Thank you for the kindly reviews, and one particular response to Hellion – I too am thinking about reviving the Rahne fics; there was at least one more chapter I really wanted to write, and I think that might make a fun project for my winter break.

Thanks all, and enjoy the show!

III.

"Ugh." Jayne slitted his eyes, peering up into the glaring red of the emergency lighting system. _What the hell did I do last night? _He sat up, gingerly touching his head; his fingers found a freshly opened gash. He stared at the blood on his hand as his thoughts slowly congealed. _Marnie – we crashed – Reavers!_

He scrambled to his feet and ran to the door, only to find it sealed thoroughly shut. "What the—?" Bending to look out the window, Jayne cursed: there was loose debris floating around out there, depressingly gravity-free. "Gorram!" He ran to the outside of the shuttle and looked out.

There was the Reaver ship, sure enough. Didn't look to be under its own power any more than Serenity was at the moment; he could see it was trailing some flotsam and jetsam, too. No telling if it had been damaged beyond repair – or if it would be turning around any minute now and coming back for a waiting meal.

"All right." Jayne swallowed hard. "Gotta think. Gotta think. Gorram it! I ain't no good at thinking." He stopped, and looked searchingly around the shuttle. "Wait one damn minute. Where the hell is that scientist when you need her?"

A pair of boots were sticking out from underneath the flight console. Eternally pragmatic, Jayne squatted down and pulled on them.

He was rewarded with a scientist curled in the fetal position, who moaned distantly as he yanked her loose from her hiding spot. She was neglecting her bleeding nose in favor of covering her eyes with both hands. "You can't see me," she sang to herself as Jayne shook her, "you can't see me."

"For the love of …" Jayne shoved her to one side with his knee as he climbed into the shuttle's pilot's seat. She slumped forward, her head listing against his leg. "You are one sad sack of shit, woman." The controls responded slowly to his clumsy touch. "Well, it don't matter. I reckon I'll find somewhere to dump you off once we get back to civilization. If there's civilization to be found near enough to get to in this rust-bucket." He angled his neck, peering out and around at the edges of Serenity that enclosed the shuttle. "Well, might make a pretty little hole, but 'taint going to do much more harm, is it?"

His hands shifted slightly on the controls, then stopped very suddenly and very completely. "Marnie," he said in a strangled voice, "kindly get your paws off'f my manly parts."

She glared up at him, her eyes ringed in red. "Not until you remove your hairy mitts from that console. You and I ain't goin' nowhere – except EV to fix this ship."

"Aw, hell, girl." Jayne growled, but did in fact remove his hairy mitts. "If we go extravehicular, we're sitting ducks for the Reavers."

"If they were online, they'd be on us already. I aim to make sure this boat is under power and under way before they are. And if you know what's good for you—" she squeezed threateningly "—you'll see fit to feeling the same way."

He swallowed hard. "Well, when you put it like that ..."

…

Zoe felt like she was made of rock under Simon's ministering hand. He wiped carefully at the scrape over her eye, trying not to think of his part in the reasons for her current distress. What ought he to say? What could he possibly do? Years of training in etiquette had somehow failed to provide him with the proper protocol for consoling a crewmate about his sizable role in the death of her beloved husband. _A beloved husband for a beloved sister … was that a fair trade?_

He stepped back, discarded the cloth. "There you are. All cleaned up." _What a foolish thing to say …._

"You got a bump on your head," Zoe said. "You best take care of that." Ever pragmatic.

"Ah. Yes." Simon dug into a drawer, withdrew a coldpack, which he placed against the bruise forming on his forehead. In response to her cool, quizzical gaze, he gave a small smile and shook his head. "No nausea, double vision, ringing ears. I'm not concussed."

"Well, that may or may not be for the best." Zoe folded her arms and stared at the door. "If they get in here, you don't want to be at your most coherent. Doc, you got … drugs?"

Simon hesitated. _First, do no harm?_ "If by 'drugs', you mean tranquilizers … yes, of course. But I certainly hope it won't come to that."

She stabbed a finger at the infirmary windows. "You see that _can yu wu_ floating around out there? That means there's no air for someone to walk around and fix this ship in. And no, holding your breath ain't going to cut it."

"I would hope …" He cleared his throat. "I would hope someone will think of something."

Zoe didn't reply. Simon looked down at the floor. "Zoe," he said slowly, "because we are here, and because we may be … short on time, I must – I must tell you—"

"Don't you start with me, doc," she said tightly. "I don't need to hear your guilty apologies. I got enough guilt of my own, don't need yours on top."

"I wish it hadn't come to … I wish there hadn't been …"

"You did what you had to, to protect your sister. Hell, doc, I can understand that." She turned to him, her eyes burning with tears and anger. "We all do what we have to. I stuck by my captain, my sergeant, in a rust bucket of a ship that always managed to find trouble, and I dragged that man along with me. I never insisted on it, and so I guaranteed he'd always be here. Be here in the boat that killed him." She pressed her hand against her forehead. "And here I always thought I'd be the one to go first."

Simon was silent for a long moment. "Zoe," he began hesitantly, "there's something else. I need to do one more test to be sure, but based on the tests I ran earlier, I'm fairly sure you—"

"Don't say it." She raised a hand, made a cutting motion through the air. "I can't stand to hear it right now. Don't you dare say it."

Simon didn't dare. He reached out, held the outstretched hand. Zoe's fingers wrapped around it, clenched tightly, and Simon courteously, selfishly pretended he couldn't see his ship's first officer weeping silently in the drifting darkness.


	9. Part 2: Chapter 4

IV.

The cargo bay was cold. It had gotten cold quickly. Too much surface area exposed to the outside. Normally that shouldn't have mattered, but normally there was an engine running and heating things up, normally there was warm air pumping throughout the ship.

Normally the ship's mechanic would be in the engine room to make sure those things kept happening.

Kaylee and Inara had climbed up the stairs to huddle against the doors to the rest of the ship, where it would stay warmest for the longest. _Will it matter?_ Inara wondered. She thought of the syringe and the vial of liquid oblivion she kept for such circumstances – locked away, oh so safely, in her shuttle. No good to herself, or to little Kaylee. No good at all.

Inara tried to smile for Kaylee, but when Kaylee wasn't smiling for herself, things must be bad indeed. "Don't worry, mei-mei," the older woman ventured, "Mal will think of something." She glanced at the girl's face. "Or if not _think_, he'll almost certainly blunder sideways into a solution while trying to do something completely different. It's always worked so well for him in the past."

At that Kaylee's lips curved slightly upwards – not quite a smile, but it would do. "The cap'n always manages something," she said. "Course, usually he's got a particularly keen engineer on the job, which helps a good sight."

"A good sight," Inara agreed. "But, Kaylee, at least you weren't out in the corridor – you're safe in here, so when Mal patches up the hull and comes looking for you to clean everything up, you're still in one extremely useful piece."

"Oh, Inara." Kaylee leaned back against the wall. "I don't want to bust your bubble, but I ain't keen on our odds right now." She smiled, half smug, half wistful. "Leastways I got myself some good sexin' before I go." Her expression changed suddenly. "You think Simon was snug in the infirmary when we got hit?"

"Snug and safe as safe can be," Inara told her. _Given up on herself already, but of course there's a chance he should survive. Oh, mei-mei, the world you live in is so strangely simple, isn't it? I'm jealous._

…

"She missed," River said. She hadn't yet moved from the copilot's seat, while Mal paced and cursed and tried to think of a plan. "She tried to fly too close to the sun and she fell down, down, down." Briefly she stretched out her arms toward the ceiling, then wrapped them tightly around herself.

Mal paused in his pacing, and looked at his heartbroken pilot. He fought back an urge to pat her on the head, to console her. This wasn't a child, after all. But this was his gorram _pilot_, and one hell of a mess she'd gotten them into, hadn't she? What was he supposed to say to her?

What would he have said to Wash?

"It was all there," River said mournfully, "in her head, and she couldn't see to—"

"Shut your trap," said Mal.

She stared up at him, her eyes huge – huger than usual – in her pale face.

"I mean it," he said. "If there's one thing I don't need on top of the rest of this mess, it's my pilot blubbering like a baby doll. You sound like a sad old sot in his cups. Well, enough. Ain't no use in it. We got us a boat to fix."

He held her gaze a moment longer, then began pacing again. "Thing is, I can't quite see through to how that fixin' might happen."

River was quiet for a moment. Then: "Maybe you should get out and push."

He grinned tiredly down at her. "That's more like what I want to hear. Now, we just need a plan wherein I do not implode." He swung himself back down into the pilot's seat. "And, little girl, you ought to know – ain't many pilots could do what you did manage just back there. I tell you, that Ivan would've worked something beautiful – if'n we had been in an atmosphere, like we was the last time. Ain't got the air resistance out here, so we went around too far – can't do that or you'll overshoot the angle and run right smack into those as you're trying to avoid."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I know that _now_."


	10. Part 2: Chapter 5

V.

"All right, then." Jayne moved slowly, ponderously away from the tear in the hull, now covered in a thick layer of Emergi-Seal from the shuttle's stock. He stuck the applicator in the crook of his vacuum suit's arm. "Ain't gonna hold forever, but it oughta see us into a safe port for a real repair job."

Marnie nodded in her helmet, her head bumping against the visor, trying not to glance wistfully back to where the shuttle bay gaped welcomingly open. "Easy part's done, then. What say we see about rerouting the power to the backup systems?"

"Sounds like a plan." Jayne looked at her expectantly. "So … how do we do it?"

Her mouth fell open. "Wha … are you telling me _you_ don't know how?"

Jayne's eyebrows crashed together. "_You're_ the scientist! I figgered you could tell me. What the hell good is a scientist who can't fix science-y things?"

Marnie made a noise somewhere between a screech and a groan. "Dammit, Jayne! I'm a _microbiologist_, not an engineer. I only know about things that you can't actually _see_."

"Well, that's good, because right now I sure as hell can't see how the hell we're going to get out of this," Jayne said, crossing his arms.

Feeling a headache coming on, Marnie tried to rub her temples, succeeding only in bouncing her hand off of her helmet. "Gorram it. Just show me where the exterior override panel is. On the hull over the engine room, I expect?"

Jayne muttered something about fancy words, but moved off in the correct direction. Marnie sighed, muttered a prayer to whoever was listening – surely she would be better heard away out here? – and followed after him.

The override panel was, in fact, rather more underneath the engine room than over it – Marnie knew, logically, that there was no up or down in space, but the part of her mind not devoted to scientific reason insisted that _oh God she was going to fall off and float away into space never to be seen again_. "Open it up," she directed Jayne. No way was she going to fuss with a screwdriver with her hands shaking the way they were.

There was no grumbling from Jayne, probably because moving a big heavy panel was Manly Work – not that it weighed anything at all out here, but it looked impressive enough to assuage his ego. He finished unfastening it from its position and lifted it, moving it and himself out of Marnie's way.

She peered down into the panel. "Hm … I see. I think if I just … yes. All right."

"You know what you're doing?" Jayne shifted uncomfortably. "What'll happen if you … if you mess it up?"

Twisting around in her suit, Marnie shrugged at him. "Well, from what I remember of electrophysics from first-year classes at university, if I reroute power the wrong way, I could well short out every circuit aboard. Oh well—" She plunged both hands into the panel. "Here goes nothing!"

Without another word she pulled free a large red lead from one jack and plugged it into another. At once the glow of the red emergency disappeared from Serenity's windows. Jayne whimpered.

But then Serenity thrummed beneath their feet, and one by one the ship's running lights flickered on. "Good Jesus, woman!" Jayne exhaled noisily. "How did you know what to do?"

"Oh," Marnie said brightly, and gestured to the inside of the panel. "I just plugged the lead into the jack labeled 'Emergency Power Override'. Do you think that'll be all right?" She grinned up at his expression. "Oh, Jayne, don't look so 'shocked'. Ahaha."

…

Kaylee said an especially fervent grace over that evening's meal, squeezing Simon's hand tightly. When she opened her eyes after the "amen", she noticed, smiling to herself, that Inara had taken the seat next to Mal. _It's a step, she thought, just a step, but that's enough for now. _Marnie was even more animated than usual, her long arms gesturing wildly with the description of her and Jayne's exploits outside the ship; Jayne solemnly took credit for all of it as she cussed him out good-naturedly. Only Zoe and River seemed withdrawn. Not knowing what was on the first officer's mind, Kaylee leaned over and squeezed River's arm where it lay on the table next to her. "Sweetie, I know what you're thinking," she said softly, "and it's craziness, sheer craziness. Ain't no one in the 'verse who does everything right all the time – not even your brother," she added with a smirk, "and not even Wash was perfect every time. So don't you go mopin' around my boat – you just live, and learn, and, and do it better next time. Dong ma?"

River smiled back at her, and Kaylee wondered how much of her speech River had already known before she spoke it. The girl put her hand on top of Kaylee's. "She understands. And she's glad to be understood."

Kaylee wrapped her fingers through Simon's sister's. "And thank God for some peace, for the time being."

"And grace, too," said River gravely.

"God bless us, every one," said Marnie loudly, in a sickly-sweet falsetto. River laughed aloud and threw a piece of protein at her. Kaylee shielded her head as the food fight began in earnest – Jayne already had protein mashed in his hair, and it appeared that Inara had managed to shove a pea into Mal's ear – and sent another happy, thankful prayer on its way to whatever benevolent deity had made such things possible.


	11. Bridge 2

**Author's notes: **Thanks to all of you who are still reading - hopefully you're liking what you see. ) Happy reading!

_Bridge_

_Jayne found her coming along the corridor from the engine room, struggling beneath the weight of a bulging canvas sack. "Hey, woman," he said. "I've been waiting for twenty minutes already. You coming on down to my room tonight or what?"_

_Marnie hesitated, resting the sack against her hip. "Well … about that. No. I don't think there will be much in the way of me coming with regards to your room in the future."_

_"What?" Jayne crossed his arms. "Are you saying I ain't good enough for you anymore?"_

_"Good enough," Marnie murmured, and shook her head. "No. It ain't a question of quality, exactly, it's more a matter of … well, you're Jayne enough, and I'm Marnie enough, that this just isn't going to work. And I think I'd like to break it off, cleanly, now. Before something messy happens."_

_"That's the high-falutin'est way I've ever been dumped," Jayne growled. "Not that I usually get dumped. Because I don't."_

_She smiled sadly. "Triage," she said._

_"Well, there's plenty other furrows for this plow," Jayne said. "Good luck findin' someone other than Jayne Cobb to occupy your vacancy."_

_Marnie's expression brightened. "Well, as a point of fact, Kaylee helped me out with filling these empty hours of mine." She reached into the bag, pulled out a long metal cylinder. "Loaned me some toys to keep me busy."_

_Jayne stared at the foot-long tapered tube. "Good lord almighty, woman. Good luck finding a man to satisfy you after that."_

_"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Marnie poked the tube at his chest, but he jumped back._

_"Ain't no way for a man to compete with that," he muttered. "Don't have too much fun with yourself, Fletch." And he retreated down the corridor back the way he had come._

_Marnie looked at River, who had crept up behind her, and held up the long tube. "Have you ever known a man to be so threatened by a computer core?" she asked with bewilderment._

_"Computer parts!" River said in a low, eager voice. "That means you'll help me."_

_"Might be, might be," Marnie said evenly. "I do think I know now what you've been asking of me. Truth be told, I ain't sure it can be done. And besides which, I ain't sure it _ought_ to be."_

_"You'll do it," River said with conviction. "Because you're curious enough to want to know if it can be done, you're smart enough to figure out how, and you're arrogant enough to think no one else can do it right."_

_The scientist shifted uncomfortably. "Well, that's as may be. Coincidentally," she glanced at the girl, "your big brother ain't going to be any too pleased about any and all … experimentation this may require. He ain't exactly my biggest fan to begin with."_

_River shrugged. "So," she said, "who's going to tell him?"_

_"All right," Marnie's face pulled into a tense smile, half against her will. "Let's go fool around with these pieces, see if we can put 'em all together, shall we?"_

_"All the pieces are broken," River said urgently. "I try to hold them together but they try to come apart."_

_Marnie stared at her, her fingers tightening into the canvas sack. "Well then," she said quietly. "I guess we'll have to try quickly is all, _dong ma_?"_


	12. Part 3: Chapter 1

**Part III. Grapes of McGrath**

I.

"What's in the bag, Simon?" Kaylee asked teasingly. "Didja get me something pretty?" The crew was returning to the ship one by one from planetfall, carrying various treasures and finds.

He grinned at her and shook her head. "I didn't notice – is it Christmas already? Or do you have a birthday coming up? What makes you think this is for you?"

"The fact that you haven't let me see it." She crossed her arms. "What is it, then?"

"Oh, Kaylee, Doc bought some sterile medical equipment down there. I was watchin'." Marnie shouldered between them, lugging a heavy bag that made strange clanking noises. A book entitled _Computer Science and You_ poked conspicuously out of the top. "Don't you know curiosity killed the cat?"

"You oughta know!" Kaylee pulled the book free of the bag and held it behind her back. "Delving into a new field, Ms. Microbiologist?"

"What's this about a new field?" Mal strode up the gangplank. "Marnie, you done with that tomato spot anti-viral drug you were cooking up yet?"

"Not per se …" she hedged. "But seeing as how we ain't got a lot of tomato plants on Serenity, I didn't realize it was so much of an emergency."

"Well, it's going to take a front seat in the Marnie Fletcher Priority Truck as of now." He took the book out of Kaylee's hands. "Hopefully your new hobby will keep till then. You do seem to have a habit of, how shall we say …"

"Not finishing what you start?" Kaylee suggested teasingly.

"You have no idea," Jayne grumbled, trudging up the ramp past them.

"I think the constant state of chaos in half of my infirmary gives me a pretty good idea," Simon put in.

Marnie's shoulders slumped. "Aw … captain." She reached out for the book, which Mal held over her head. "Oooof!" Her long arm just barely brushed the edge of the cover, and she made a face. "I'm looking to make some modifications to the navigational system. Believe me … I think you'll be _extremely_ impressed with the improved performance."

"Ain't nothing wrong with Serenity's performance," Kaylee said, an edge of hostility creeping into her tone.

"You just been having all kinds of problems with other folks' performances lately, huh?" Jayne called down from the top of the stairway.

"Disgusting," said Simon.

"People, please!" Mal held his hands up in front of him in a pleading gesture, giving Marnie the opportunity to snatch the book back. "All right, Fletch, you can play with my nav computer if you like, on two conditions: one, if you break it, it's coming out of your cut on the next job. Two, you better have that drug ready to roll by the time we make landing on Greenleaf."

"We're going to Greenleaf?" Kaylee clapped her hands. "Shiny!"

"Don't eat those strawberries before they're picked, little Kaylee," the captain said dryly. "Let's go track down Zoe and get this job planned out."


	13. Part 3: Chapter 2

Oh my … it's been a long time, hasn't it? I apologize for the long intermission. Story in brief, school didn't go as well for me last semester as I would have liked, and I decided to buckle down to work a lot harder … better to have my nose to the grindstone than my ass kicked out of grad school, I suppose. BUT: my classes are treating me a LOT better this semester, and I've finally settled into a lab for my thesis. So that's spiffy. I won't have the same amount of time I put into writing as before, but hopefully … no more four-month breaks. Thanks to the people who commented asking for more to the story … you helped kick my butt back into the habit of writing, and I appreciate it! (Comments make this little writer's world go 'round.) So, thanks for reading, thanks for waiting, and enjoy the show!

**II.**

Mal waited until his whole crew had settled comfortably around the mess hall table before beginning. "Well, it's like this. There's a fella over on Greenleaf named McGrath. And, as I understand it, he has got the very best vineyards in the known 'verse."

"Of course." Inara nodded. "His wines are the very best. They're the only sort we use in Academy training."

"The Zinfandel is especially good," added Simon helpfully.

Mal cleared his throat. "Indeed. Not much of a Zinfandel man, myself."

"Captain only likes a drink if he won't be able to remember what it was when he wakes up the next afternoon," said Zoe dryly.

"He has the same taste in liquor as in women, apparently." Inara raised her eyebrows innocently when Mal sent a dark look her way. Kaylee tittered.

"Y'all are having an inside joke again!" Marnie whined. "I never know what's going on."

"_As I was saying._ McGrath. Greenleaf. Booze. Yes? Are we all on the same page now?" He glared at his grinning crew. "Anyway. There is another fellow, also of the wine-making variety, who it seems has begun to covet his neighbor's grapes. And so he's enlisted us, wise man that he is, to bring him a cutting of Farmer McGrath's crops, so that he can use it to start up his very own overpriced orchard. Do we all follow?"

"What a pointless exercise!" said Simon. "Any connoisseur worth his salt knows that half of the taste of a wine is the result of the wood it's casked in, the yeast that's used, and the bacteria that happen to be present."

Inara nodded in agreement. "Wine is very much a local phenomenon. Duplicating McGrath's flavors just by stealing his fruits will never work!"

"There's a particular flavor known as 'horse blanket'," Marnie said. "Caused by _Brettanomyces bruxellensis_." She wilted slightly under everyone's stares. "I'm just trying to contribute …"

"All's I want to know is, who the hell licked a horse blanket in the first place to compare it?" Jayne muttered.

Mal ignored him. "I was thinking along the lines of us sending someone along to parley with McGrath – y'know, act like a buyer, of the most hoity-toity variety. Refusin' to be satisfied with the mere legend of his brilliance, but insisting on seeing these fabled orchards with one's very own peepers. And who could then slip a wee little cutting into a purse or pocket …"

"Don't be absurd, Mal," said Inara. "You couldn't pass yourself off as an rich, classy oenophile if you had credits flowing out of your pockets and 'I Love Wine' tattooed on all your servant's foreheads. As a matter of fact, I don't believe anyone on this crew could." She glanced around. "Why is everyone looking at me?"

"What the devil's an eeny-file?" Jayne demanded. "I thought we were talking about grapes."

"Jayne is staring at you because you used a word with three syllables," said Mal, sauntering around the table. "Those of us whose family trees don't actually have relatives climbing about on 'em and flinging dung at each other, on the other hand, were thinking that perhaps our buyer might take the form of a most lovely and talented Companion …"

Inara tossed her head. "Oh, no. Oh no, you don't. You will not get me involved in one of your ridiculous schemes again!"

"Don't get your underpants all up in a bunch, now – do Companions wear underpants? Well, no matter. Don't get anything all up in a bunch, you can just take Jayne along to be your gun hand, and—"

"Not Jayne." Inara stood smoothly, sliding her chair back from the table. "A Companion chooses servants who look presentable, and who are knowledgeable about their mistresses' needs. And who know when to keep their mouths shut and not to swear at important clients." She smiled sweetly up into Mal's startled face. "Pretty boys, not hired brawn. We'll have to stick a gun on Simon's hip and hope no one challenges him to show them how it works." With that, she turned and glided out of the room. "I'll be in my shuttle preparing till we make planetfall, if anyone needs me."

Mal stared up at the ceiling as her footsteps faded. "Glad to see we all still know who's in charge around here."

"I would like to point out," Jayne said, folding his arms, "that I do not swear at important clients." He tilted his chair onto its back two legs. "Hell, we ain't never even had an _important_ client …"


	14. Part 3: Chapter 3

III.

Kaylee and Jayne trotted down out of the hatch, watching the mule carry Simon and Inara away into the town down the long, curving dirt path. Inara still somehow managed to look regal despite having to borrow Marnie's goggles to keep the dirt out of her eyes. This both fascinated and annoyed Kaylee. _She makes it look so easy!_

A slow smile spread over the mechanic's face as she paused at the bottom of the gangplank to survey the surrounding area. River had landed Serenity in a large field of purple and red flowers. "Oh, Jayne. Ain't it just the purtiest thing you ever did see?"

Jayne grunted and tossed the hard leather ball between his hands. "It's just gorram dandy. You wanna play stickball or not?"

"Party pooper." Rolling her eyes, Kaylee jogged farther out into the field and swung the long stick up onto her shoulder. Jayne wound up and threw her an easy pitch, straight down the center. "With an attitude like that, small wonder Marnie dumped your sorry self."

She connected solidly with the ball, and watched it sail straight over Jayne's head. The mercenary pointed at her. "Jayne Cobb don't get dumped! Jayne Cobb _dumps_." He spat on the ground. "Purtier women than Fletcher, too."

Kaylee groaned and let the stick drop to the ground. "Jayne Cobb also digs the ball he just lost out of the middle of a grassy field. If Jayne Cobb can find it. Else he's buying Kaylee Frye a new one!"

…

Mal let the last box of heavy equipment drop to the decking with a crash, cheerfully ignoring Marnie's slight wince. "Now, ladies, what's next on the agenda?"

River and Marnie exchanged a glance. "Actually, captain …" Marnie took his arm and steered him gently toward the door. "I thought I'd try to avoid too many cooks in here spoiling the soup. People starin' over my shoulder has always made me feel all … skittery."

"Right," said Mal, with a glance at River. "I suppose the girl has to stare _under_ your shoulder, bein' as you're so heightful. That way a little easier on your nerves? I could go about on my knees, if you'd rather."

"_Captain_." Marnie squinted up at him. "Have you ever tried to disengage this child when her interest is up?"

"I've tried to disengage her when her _dander_ was up." The captain scratched his head. "I believe restraining her normally requires a safeword and a heavy-duty pair of handcuffs." River stuck out her tongue at him. "Yes. Well. All right. I guess I'll leave the two of you to do whatever it is crazy people do when left to their own devices in _other people's spaceships. _Ahem."

"I break it, I bought it," Marnie said. "Yes, I get the picture. See you later, sir!"

Mal retreated down the stairs, wondering exactly when this whole estrogen mutiny had begun and how reversible it was. _We'll see how sassy they're feeling after they swab out the cargo bay a few times._

…

"Simon!" Inara sighed, pausing as she removed the goggles and dust-wraps that had protected her on the windy trip down from the ship. "Stop fussing with your vest – it looks fine!"

Simon grimaced. He was dressed in his finest suit (the finest one that hadn't yet acquired bloodstains, anyway). "I thought I was supposed to be your pretty servant," he objected. "I'm simply trying to look the part."

"Well, just be careful." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Or you'll look like a prig."

"I suppose it would look better for me to be less concerned with my hemline and more concerned with … whatever bodyguards are concerned with."

"I believe the primary concern is usually the continued pulse of their employer." She shook out her long hair, combing it through with her fingers. "I rather hope, however, that won't be an issue today."

"With this crew?" Simon made a wry face as he extended an arm to help his 'mistress' down from her seat. "Hope is a luxury I don't dare permit myself. Probably Jayne will find a way to pick a fight and get us shot, despite being left behind."

Inara laughed aloud. "If Jayne can pick a fight with a field of bluebells, I shall be very impressed. And now …" She raised her eyebrows. "Please remember to walk behind me and call me 'ma'am'!"

Simon grinned. "Yes _sir_, Ma'am."


	15. Part 3: Chapter 4

IV.

"Companion Serra." Landry McGrath bowed deeply, favoring Inara with a gracious smile. "You are most welcome to McGrath Yards. It's not often we're graced with such an illustrious presence in our midst!"

"Master McGrath," Inara murmured, with a courtesy in response. She allowed him to kiss her fingertips, with all the collected calm a good Companion should exhibit. Despite her cool greeting, she felt rather pleased to have the chance to see so fine a place as these orchards – it seemed unlikely, with all of the events surrounding the Tam siblings and Miranda, that she would be enjoying a great deal of time on any of the Core planets. "Such a lovely set-up you have here – I haven't had the pleasure to visit Greenleaf in many a year! I do so appreciate you taking the time to humor me with this little tour."

"But of course!" McGrath took her gently by the elbow and guided her toward the door of the gatehouse to the orchards. Simon followed closely behind, managing not to look utterly panicked – Inara was terribly proud. "The Companions have always been among our best customers – wise, wealthy, and with excellent taste; a wine-maker's dream come true."

The Companion laughed prettily. _I hope he doesn't keep this level of charm up, or I'll start to feel bad about robbing him!_ "I suppose I am not quite such a dream come true. A new instructor who simply must come and see your operation for herself instead of taking the word of her elders on its quality?"

"Oh, my dear Miss Serra!" McGrath paused; hey had arrived at the gatehouse doors, which were opened smartly by two guards dressed in white and purple uniforms. "Of course I should rather have you here to see and taste and smell everything for yourself, so that you should extol the virtues of my wines to your students all the more convincingly!" He beckoned her toward the open twin doors with a sweeping gesture. "Now please, after you, madam." Inara swept forward gracefully, with Simon tagging close behind, but McGrath stopped her at the doorframe itself. "Will you be desiring to have your slave accompany you, then?" he whispered, with just the appropriate patrician note of distaste.

"Oh, Master McGrath." Inara smiled at him, and motioned for Simon to follow her. _Suddenly stealing from him has just become a great deal easier._ "I wouldn't dream of leaving him behind!"


	16. Part 3: Chapter 5

V.

The warm spring sunlight felt lovely, pouring down on Inara's face and shoulders. She trod carefully between rows and rows of grapevines, watching to keep her slippers and wrap out of the mud. It was certainly a treat to be out of the ship and under a bright sky for a time, and she hoped the rest of the crew was making the most of it as well. At McGrath's urging, she popped one of the round, fat red grapes into her mouth, and (as she knew he expected her to) murmured delightedly over it. Despite the pleasure of being outside and on terra firma, thought, she was beginning to fear that she wouldn't be able to slip away from McGrath and his two guards long enough to get a cutting …

There was a loud crash from behind her. Inara whirled around, only to see Simon standing awkwardly beside a long panel of toppled trellis. Tendrils of a few broken vines waved pathetically in the light breeze. _Oh, Simon. I don't know whether that was an accident or on purpose, but I'll thank you for it later._

"Gorram it, slave! That was the finest birchwood trellis money can buy!" She let the cursing McGrath and his minions push past her, while slowly moving backward into the gap between two rows herself. Quickly, she flicked her wrist, dropping the tiny silver knife from her hidden sheath into her palm. In one swift motion, she freed a long cutting from one of the vines beside her, and concealed it in the folds of her wrap. The knife was returned to the secret sheath, and Inara slipped out into the open again. McGrath and company were still heartily berating poor Simon, who stood with a slave's usual hangdog attitude.

"Oh, Master McGrath." Inara clasped her hands. "I do apologize most profusely for my slave's clumsiness. Perhaps I ought to have left him at the gatehouse after all!" She glared at Simon. "Boy! I want to hear you apologize to this man _right now_!"

Simon murmured something that sounded vaguely apologetic in the general direction of the ground. Inara sighed and shook her head. "Of course, sir, I will pay for any damage this _sha gua_ has caused you." She bowed her head and tried not to smile; she knew full well that McGrath could not accept her offer of reimbursement without appearing rude and risking losing her business.

Sure enough, the big man hemmed and hawed. "Ah, thank you, Miss Serra, but I would not dream of taking your money over such a small matter." He glanced over his shoulder at Simon. "Perhaps, though, we should return to the gatehouse? The hour is growing late, after all …" He chuckled. "And I wouldn't mind trying to keep your boy from doing any more damage than what's already done."

"Of course." She smiled and took his proffered arm. "You've been a most gracious host, sir."

…

Once back at the gatehouse, McGrath entreated Inara to stay to take the evening meal on Greenleaf. "It's drawing near the dinner hour already, 'twould be a shame to bid you farewell now!" he pleaded.

She smiled sweetly. "I would that I could, Master McGrath, but a Companion's schedule is a busy one. To say nothing of that I have my slave's discipline to see to." She frowned at Simon, who looked adequately cowed. "I thank you for your kind offer though, and I expect I shall be in contact with you in the near future regarding our future business together!"

McGrath sighed, and glanced at his guards, who settled their hands on their wrist holsters. "Well, then, Miss Serra, let me be fully honest with you. You are using your real name, I note – I imagine you assumed I'd check the registry of Companions to be sure you were really among them? Well, I certainly did that." He smoothed the front of his silk vest. "I also took the liberty of waving the Academy itself, to enquire as to which House you would be instructing." He smiled at Inara's widening eyes. "Imagine my surprise when they informed me that you had left Sihnon years ago! Now," he continued. "I haven't got around to calling in the local Alliance lieutenant yet; I thought I would actually be sure I found the evidence on you first."

_The Alliance!_ Inara could feel the blood draining out of her face. _If they found Simon here …_

McGrath was still talking, apparently enjoying the sound of his own voice. "You _are_ here to steal some fruit from me, I assume? Or perhaps you were just taking some captures to 'case the joint' first, as they say. Either way. Boys?" He gestured to his guards. "Kindly search this … lady as you see fit." The guards started to move towards her.

But they had forgotten about the disgraced slave in the corner. Simon yanked the gun out of its holster, nearly dropping it in the process, and fired two shots from the hip.

Simon was not, in point of fact, a fire-from-the-hip sort of person. His aim was wildly off, and neither struck the two guards nor McGrath himself. This proved to be to the doctor's advantage, as nobody knew who was being shot at, and so all three dropped immediately to the ground.

Zhou ma! Inara grabbed the gun from Simon in one hand, the doctor's arm in the other, and fled with him out the front of the gatehouse. The other two guards still attending the front doors called after her in alarm; she turned and neatly winged each of them in the gun arm.

"I didn't realize Academy training included time on a shooting range," Simon shouted as he clambered into the mule.

"You'd be surprised just what Academy training includes." Inara settled herself into the back seat, angling the pistol to cover their retreat. _Shame there's only two shots left!_ "Get on the horn and tell Mal we're coming, along with some unwanted company." She dearly hoped there would be enough time to get everybody back on board and get Serenity in the air before the Greenleafers caught up. "Come on, slave! Let's _go_."


	17. Part 3: Chapter 6

VI.

Mal was pacing and puttering about the cargo bay when Simon's frantic call came over the intercom. "Captain! We're on our way back, with trouble right behind us!"

Trouble must get might tired of always looking at our backsides, thought Mal, as he raced over to the intercom and snatched up the mouthpiece. "All right, doctor, we'll be ready for lift-off by the time you get here. You gonna make it in one piece?"

"I think so—" Simon's voice was difficult to make out over the roaring of the mule's battered engine. "We'll be there in two minutes. Just make sure the hatch is open!"

"You got it, doc." Mal dropped the mouthpiece and jogged over to the gangplank. "Kaylee! Jayne!" he bellowed. "You both better get in here now if you don't want to become permanent parts of the scenery hereabouts!"

He heard Kaylee say, "You are so totally buying me a new ball," but he was already hurrying back to the intercom. "River," he shouted into the intercom, "I need you to get this boat ready for lift-off. As a matter of fact, you being a seer and all, it would be mighty convenient if you'd started gettin' ready five minutes back."

The intercom crackled back at him, and then Marnie's voice emerged from the speakers, tinny and nervous. "Ahh … actually, captain, we're really mucked down in the middle of something right now. Can it wait a bit?"

"Can it wait a … " Mal cursed angrily. "Marnie Fletcher! You stop faddling around with that nav system now and get this boat off the ground or so help me I'll have you scrubbing out the cargo bay with a toothbrush – I'll make you wash Inara's sheets after she has customers on 'em – _I will make you give Jayne foot rubs every night for a month!_"

"No need to get tetchy, captain," Marnie said in a hurt tone. "We'll be done in just two shakes of a sheep's tail. Got to get back to work now if we want to get done in time!"

And she hung up on him.

He was staring at the silent 'com when Jayne and Kaylee scurried up the gangplank behind him. "She hung up on me," he announced, to neither of them in particular.

"Captain, what's going on?" Kaylee asked worriedly. "Simon and 'Nara are tearin' up the road in an awful hurry to get back up here – the dust cloud goes back half a mile. What's all this scuttlin' about for?"

"Deal went south," Mal said abruptly. "What'd we expect?"

Jayne growled. "Gorram it, Mal. Deal goes south so often anymore we oughta buy a summer home there." Suddenly he cocked his head, listening to the sound of engines not warming up. "Hey … shouldn't we be not sitting here waitin' to get shot at?"

"Just what I was thinking," Mal said grimly. He threw himself at the stairs up to the bridge, Kaylee and Jayne close on his heels. Zoe fell in with them at the top of the flight, her eyebrows drawn. "Captain, what the _yao guai_ is going on now?"

Mal didn't stop to speak to her. "Simon and Inara are on their way back, at a little faster pace than we had so dearly hoped for, and I am going to kick Fletcher's balls out through the top of her _head_."

"That woman don't have _balls_," Jayne snorted. "Believe me, I know." Kaylee and Zoe stared at him. "Jesus H., not like that. When the Reavers attacked," he protested. "Surest case of shell-shock I ever did see."

"Because you saw so very many cases of shell-shock in the war," Zoe said coldly. "Oh, _wait_."

But they had reached the top of the ship, and Mal slammed open the door to the cockpit, ready to kick any and all asses that continued to disobey direct orders.

And stopped. And stared.

Exposed wiring and leaking boxes of heaven only knew what – panels torn off of half of the walls – and River sitting in all the middle of it, with a right ugly piece of headgear strapped to her forehead. Marnie stood next to her, her hand on a switchboad, looking extremely stricken. "Oh, captain," she said. "I _did_ ask you to wait."

Mal breathed in deeply through his nose. "Fletcher, unless I am very much mistaken, I am the captain of this here boat, and you are the newest and therefore most junior crewman. That means that _I_ give the orders, and you follow them out. Such orders include 'go make me a sandwich', 'get ready for lift-off right this very moment', and '_absolutely no medical experiments on other crew members_'."

"Captain?" Simon's voice echoed up the hallway. "We're all in and closed up downstairs, but I can't help but notice we're still not in the air."

"And McGrath and the rest of his guards are directly behind us," Inara added. "To say nothing of if they call an Alliance patrol in to help – they won't take too long to cut into this tin can …" She and the doctor pushed into the cockpit. "What is going on up … oh. Oh my."

Simon's face was livid. "She's been with the Alliance all this time. Here to hurt my sister. And you _let her_ on board."

"Weirdos with a checkered past are our specialty, ain't they?" muttered Jayne.

"Simon, no," said River gently. "Trust is good. All for the better this way."

"River—"

The ship shook violently, shuddering from helm to stern. Zoe peered out the cockpit window. "It's McGrath and his boys." The distinct hum of a laser weapon warming up cut into the tense atmosphere in the tiny room. "And they brought a mighty big can opener with 'em."

"Captain," said Marnie urgently. "I am just going to flip these here three switches and everything will be done. I just need to—"

"Don't you touch those!" Simon shouted. He tore the gun out of Inara's startled grasp and leveled it straight at Marnie.

The scientist turned an unpleasant shade of sickly green. "Simon—"

"Simon—" River parroted, nervous and twisting in her seat suddenly. "No, Simon. Simon, no."

"It's all right, River, I won't let her hurt you!" The doctor was sweating now. "Get away from those switches or I – will – kill – you."

Mal raised both of his hands. "Doctor Tam, let's cool things down a bit before we break part of my ship. Or one of my crew. Put the gun away, son, before something happens that we'll all reg—"

Several things happened all at once.

Marnie flipped the switches. Simon fired. It was impossible to say which had happened first. River screamed – in pain? In terror? Who could say?

And unbelievably, impossibly, the ship shuddered, shivered, and lifted off – no hands on the helm. No mortal guidance at all. Mal closed his eyes against the disturbing sight. In two steps he was beside the doctor, wrenching the gun out of hand. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Marnie sliding slowly down against the bulkhead. _Was she really crew? Or was it a trick, an unholy trick, all this time?_

_And why didn't River know all along?_

The ship rocked, shaken by a blast from the planetside defenses. River tore off the ugly headgear and lurched out of the chair. "No trust!" She scrabbled frantically at the doctor's vest. "No trust! Is it too late or too early?"

Jayne pulled River off of her brother and pinned the smaller man's arms against his sides. "Let's all just take a breather for a minute here, doc," he said roughly. Simon didn't struggle in the big man's grip.

The ship's path began to level out as the sky overhead darkened. Zoe shouldered her way deeper into the cockpit, leaving Kaylee hovering in the dooway. "She's breathin'," the first officer said as she bent over Marnie. "Mostly, anyhow. We doing something to keep her that way?"

Mal started to gesture to Jayne and the trembling doctor, but then the speakers crackled loudly, alarmingly.

"Zoe!" said the dead man's voice. I heard her! Where is she? Is she there? _Zoe_!"


	18. Bridge 3

Bridge

_Marnie's cheek pressed against the deck, hard and cold and too real. She felt warm and flustered by the feet kicking and dancing around her. A handful of wildflowers had fallen on the floor across the way, their stems slightly crushed by the touch of a big, clumsy hand. Marnie smiled faintly; she could empathize._

_Zoe's hands were on her face then, yanking her out of her world of socks and muddy boots. Marnie tried to whisper the words to the other woman – of all people, it was Zoe, Zoe alone, who must understand. But there was no air in the cockpit, and without the air, there were no words. _

_River. Would River make them know? Would her last, her greatest task fail? Would it go unrealized?_

_But then the voice. The voice, breaking out of the speakers. In the silence that followed, Marnie knew that _they_ knew. _Past sins erased. And no time for any more

_Everything finally made sense – full circle come at last. Marnie nodded, smiling, and was deep in darkness by the time her head dropped to the deck._


	19. Part 4: Chapter 1

**Part 4: Science Lessons**

I.

The silence in the cockpit stretched out painfully. Mal felt that, as the captain, he probably ought to step forward and say something. _Say what, though? They don't generally cover situations like this in Captain School …_

But it was Zoe who moved first. She stood up slowly, letting Marnie's head drop to the floor.

And she fled.

It was the single worst thing Mal had ever seen. Zoe did not – had _never_ – simply turned tail and run. A strategic retreat, when necessary, yes – but never this.

Silence again, broken only by ugly gasping sounds from the wounded woman. It was finally Jayne – unsentimental, incurious son of a bitch that he was – who uncharacteristically took charge of the situation. "Well … hell, Wash." He addressed himself to the pilot's console. "We got us one _jia sha shou_ of a situation here. Doc here went and shot, uh, this here other doctor we got. So if'n you don't mind, I'm gonna have the doctor fix up the … doctor." Letting go of the stunned Simon, he stooped to retrieve Marnie's shaking body. "Good t'have you back, Wash." And he pushed Simon ahead of him, through the cockpit door.

"Good to hear your voice, too," said the pilot's voice quietly.

Silence once more. Then: "Wash," said Inara, her cultured voice husky with unshed tears. "We've … missed you …"

Then the barrage of joyful greetings, the deluge of tears from the two women. "Oh, Wash," Kaylee said, hands pressed to her mouth, "it's a miracle, a downright miracle!"

"No," said River, unheard by any but Mal. She had huddled into the corner of the bridge. "No such thing as a miracle." She rose to her feet, not looking at anyone. "It was _science_," she whispered, and spun on one heel to exit the cockpit, leaving the other three to greet their long-lost, beloved pilot.


	20. Part 4: Chapter 2

Howdy strangers – I apologize for the return of the Long Delay; I'm in the middle of a move as well as the end of a semester of grad school classes. Blech. Hopefully more is on the way soon …

II.

Jayne laid Marnie out on the examination table and stepped back, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants. The burden of command was beginning to chafe mightily – even if the command had only lasted five minutes and been over two people, one of whom was unconscious. "Well, Doc," he said, shifting his weight between his feet, "get to it, why don't you!"

Simon, who was already scrubbing his hands and wrists, grimaced into the sink. "I wonder what, exactly, it is you _think_ I am doing?"

"Well, you ain't doing it fast enough, in my …" Jayne put his hand on his holster "… _studied_ opinion."

Gritting his teeth, Simon dragged out a tray of surgical instruments. "Are you threatening me? That doesn't really seem conducive to me doing the best possible job here, now does it?"

"You better do your best possible work," Jayne muttered. "You ain't gonna be feeling too shiny yourself if anything happens to her." He folded his arms. "If anything _else_ happens to her."

Though he was hands-deep into Marnie's chest by now, Simon found a moment to glare at the larger man. "Amazing, Jayne. Is this some unsuspected streak of nobility, shining through at last? Or maybe gore just upsets your tender sensibilities?" Blood-soaked sponges dropped to the deck. "Or could it be you're just feeling sentimental over the only woman willing to hump you without taking your money first?"

The doctor was fairly sure he _heard_ muscles and bone creak as the big man knotted his fists and leaned across the exam table. "Could be, Doc, could be," he said evenly. "She ain't the prettiest thing to look at, though, is she? Nothing a man oughta get too worked up over." He grinned evilly. "Not like your sister, for example."

Simon realized he had a scalpel in one clenched fist and a sharpened shunt in the other when Mal strode into the infirmary. "Both of you _stand down_," the captain barked. He stopped at the head of the table, between the other two men, glaring at each of them in turn. "Doctor, I do believe you got a job to do, and rising to the bait ain't helping you get it done. Jayne, you shut that big flapping gap in your face and get the hell out of this room."

"Captain, you ain't gonna _trust_ him--" started Jayne.

Mal silenced him with a look. "Jayne, you are not standing on solid ground telling me exactly who I oughta trust or not."

The big man's jaw clenched, but he turned on his heel and stalked out the way the captain had come.

Mal rounded on the doctor next. "Now you hear me, and you hear me good," he said softly. "You ain't the only one on this boat – nor in the 'verse – allowed to give a good gorram about another person. It seems to me that this is something that has slipped your memory. It would serve you mighty well, Doc, to try keep this on your mind. _Do I make myself clear?_"

"Yes." Simon cleared his throat at Mal's dark look. "Y-yes, sir."

Marnie choked loudly, gut-wrenchingly; pink froth had begun to collect in the corners of her mouth. Both men started; and, cursing, Simon dove back to work.

…

Mal stood back and watched in silence as the doctor applied shunts and adrenaline shots and other medical terminology the captain didn't understand. He stared down at the patient's ashen face, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle she had presented him with.

"_Surest case of shell-shock I ever did see,"_ Jayne had said. And what had Kaylee told him, after they had rescued the women and River from those ranchers-turned-kidnappers? "_She was at Serenity Valley_," the mechanic whispered, her brown eyes wide._ "She knew that old song, that old song that Zoe used to sing when the two of you drank too much on U-day_ …"

He folded his arms, and watched the bubbles rise gracefully from the hole in Marnie's chest. _Now, Dr. Fletcher, I wonder who you really are?_


	21. Part 4: Chapter 3

III.

Marnie woke slowly; irritatingly slowly. Her eyelids felt crusty, as if she had been sleeping for days – or crying in her sleep. _Hard to say at this point, old girl_. She grunted, willing her blurry vision to resolve itself into something pleasant.

She squinted harder, and Captain Reynolds' face swam into sight above her. _Pleasant? Well, not bad, not bad._ "Howdy, captain." Her grin felt stretched too tight over her teeth. "Fancy meetin' you here. Have I died and gone to heaven?"

"Not yet, Dr. Fletcher. Not yet. Happens as I've got a few questions for you afore I let you go anywhere." The captain leaned closer; now Marnie could see his folded arms, the gun at his hip. "For starters … what, exactly is your real name, Dr. Fletcher?"

Marnie let her head fall back onto the table, staring up at the ceiling. "I see," she muttered. "So this is hell."

…

"… and then we all came up on the bridge and there was River with the nastiest-lookin' machinery you ever did see, strapped right onto her forehead, and then Simon argued with Dr. Fletcher, and then h-he shot her, and she flipped the switches, and here you are, and here were are," Kaylee concluded breathlessly. She looked around at the others: Inara was still here, Jayne had returned shortly after his departure, and finally Simon had trudged back onto the bridge, lurking nervously by the hatch. "Did I miss anything?"

"You f'rgot the part where I heroically carried the injured doctor to safety," said Jayne, with some satisfaction. He rolled an eye across the bridge to where Simon stood in a shadow. "Or as safe as she's gonna get with the doc taking care of her."

"Jayne!" Wash said gleefully, his voice tinny coming from the computer's speakers. "You learned new words while I was gone! With four syllables, even."

"While you were gone," Kaylee repeated, and shivered slightly. "What was … what was it like, Wash?"

"Kaylee!" Inara rebuked gently. "It's not polite to pry into other people's …"

"Into other people's deaths?" Wash chuckled. "No, 'Nara, it's all right. I don't figure much as it was like dying for real, anyhow. I remember the pain, and then – it was over, just like that. Faster than Jayne cuts in line for supper."

"I'll let that slide," the big man rumbled as he leaned back against the bulkhead, "seein' as you're dead and all."

Wash laughed. "_Mao rong rong_ _xi_, Inara, tell Kaylee not to look so gorram horrified."

Kaylee clapped both hands over her mouth. "Wash! You can _see us_?"

"No, nothing of the sort." She could almost hear the grin in his voice; she'd missed it badly enough. "Just know you well enough by now."

"Please, Wash," said Inara. "Tell us more about what happened to you."

He cleared his throat noisily, rattling some of the dinosaurs where they still stood on the pilot's console. "T'be honest, there's not much more needs to be told. There was no more pain – and then River—" His voice changed, became softer. "Little River … she took me in, kept me safe. There was a storm, outside, but I was safe …"

"How?" whispered Kaylee. "How did she …"

"Hell if I know." Wash sighed. "You can imagine me shrugging helplessly now, if you like."

…

Unable to roll over, Marnie turned her face away from Mal. "My name is Hatcher," she muttered. "Charlotte Hatcher. Charlie, if you like." She scrunched up her face. "Are we done, Captain? I was shot today, if you recall. In the _chest_, in fact."

"That would explain why 'Marnie Fletcher' didn't turn up any results when I queried the Core network." Mal leaned back, shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. "So … Dr. Hatcher … are you, in actual fact, a doctor?"

Marnie made a rude noise. Shrugging, Mal continued. "Now, unless I very much mistake myself … when first we met, I told you I ain't much for dealings with Alliance scientists, and you told me that was why you come to me. Is there, at this time, anything further you'd want to tell me on this point?"

"I am not going to say anything to you that you haven't already figured out on your own," Marnie said coldly. The change in her accent didn't escape Mal's notice.

"You're telling me, then," he said, "you fought for the Alliance in the battle of Serenity Valley?"

"'Fought' is a funny word. I _was_ there. And yes, as it happened … I _was_ wearing purple." She turned her face toward Mal finally, and glared up at him with eyes ringed in red. "What are you going to do – shoot me now? You're about seven years too late, sir." She grimaced. "Also, Simon beat you to it."

Mal shook his head slowly, firmly. "No. I ain't gonna shoot you." His eyes narrowed. "But I ain't gonna look at you walking around my boat, pretty as you please, either. No. You're off, next port we put in at. You hear?"

Her pale face had grown flushed. "You – you can't do that to me!" Gasping, she struggled to her elbows. "You can't do that!"

He regarded her coolly. "I guess that's why we did so much better than y'all expected in that fight. Apparently they don't teach you much about the chain of command in Purplebelly School."

"I worked hard for you!" she snarled at him. "I did what you needed, what I was told to. I-I brought your gorram pilot back to _life_!"

Mal's eyes narrowed. "Chain of command, woman. I'm still your captain – for today at least. This conversation is _over_." And, turning on one heel, he walked away from Charlotte Hatcher as she continued to rage, useless and unheard, behind the infirmary door.


	22. Part 4: Chapter 4

Author's notes: Well, that silly little "real life" business does tend to get in the way of fan fiction writing, doesn't it? A little school, a little work, and a little wedding planning later, here's a new chapter once again …

IV.

Kaylee was puttering aimlessly around the kitchen, haphazardly assembling the evening meal. Wash had made a request for some time alone – "to readjust to these controls", he had said, " … and to readjust to being, you know … a zombie computer program pilot."

Jayne was "helping" Kaylee make dinner by prowling around the kitchen and fetching things she couldn't reach down from the top shelves – not necessarily the things she requested, but there was really only so much to be expected from Jayne.

"Don't worry, Jayne," Kaylee said helpfully, when the big man pulled a hunting knife on a box of biscuit mix that gave him a paper cut. "She'll pull through, sure enough. She's in good hands."

Jayne grunted as he shook biscuit powder off of his hands. "If'n I recall correctly, it was those 'good hands' that put a bullet to her in the first place."

Suddenly feeling defensive, Kaylee slammed the fry pan down onto the rangetop – harder than she'd meant to. "Really, Jayne," she said tersely. "You seem awful worked up. You really find some time to spare a care for someone other'n yourself? Or are you just worried you're gonna miss out on another free hump next time you find yourself wanting?"

The big man slammed his knife onto the counter, shaking the dishes in the cupboards; Kaylee gasped and took a step back. Surely even in one of his tempers, Jayne would never hurt _her_? But he only turned his back on her and walked away. "Good question, _mei-mei_," he said, not looking back at her. "Now I just wonder – do you care what happens to her because she's a walkin', talkin' real live human being?" He paused at the doorway. "Or because if she dies, your _boyfriend_ is a cold-blooded, dead-eyed killer?" And with that he stalked away.

Kaylee let the fry pan drop back onto the counter. _ Guess I was wrong. Looks like Jayne can hurt me, if he has a mind to. _Fighting tears, she moved to clean up the spilled biscuit mix with a damp towel. _And if I swipe at him hard enough first._

Footsteps sounded behind her. She whirled, towel in hand, ready to either apologize to Jayne or beat him with the biscuity towel until he apologized first. But it was Simon, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "Kaylee," he said softly. "I didn't mean to … to eavesdrop … I … don't listen to Jayne, Kaylee, he's just trying to …"

"No, Simon, it was my fault." She attempted to smile bravely, and scrubbed at her wet face with the towel.

"You have biscuit mix on your nose." Simon squeezed her arm as he wiped her face clean. "Come on. Sit down. Relax."

Kaylee accepted the seat the doctor pulled out for her at the kitchen table. "It's just been such a … such a day." She looked up at Simon as he sat next to her. "Is Marnie gonna – is she pulling through?"

"Ah, yes," Simon assured her. "Yes. She'll recover fine. A punctured lung, a broken rib. Nothing I couldn't … ah … nothing I couldn't fix."

They stared at each other, for a long awkward moment. Kaylee broke the look first, fidgeting with the tablecloth. "Simon," she began hesitantly. "I got to ask you a question, and I hope you'll answer it full honesty." He nodded. "If you thought that I meant to – that I was a threat to River … would you hurt me, too?"

Simon's face fell. "Oh, Kaylee. Kaylee" He took both of her hands in his, held them tightly; she looked at him hopefully, sadly. "I know that you would never want to hurt River."

He gathered her into a warm embrace, but she stayed stiff against him, resisting the pull. "I can't help but notice," she said into the coarse wool of his vest, "that you ain't answered my question."


	23. Part 4: Chapter 5

Author's notes: Thanks for all the kinds words – they're well appreciated! I also went back and fixed that most offensive typo in Chapter 1. ;)

V.

Looking for a few moments to collect his thoughts alone, Mal stepped into the cargo bay – whereupon he nearly knocked Inara off her feet. "Hey, woman," he said, steadying her with a hand on her elbow, "I'm trying to _lurk_, here."

The Companion stepped back, smoothing her robes. "We all have a lot on our minds, Mal. And I've already burned through all the incense I have – for some reason, this crew tends to need a lot of prayers." Her brow furrowed. "Mal - will she be all right?"

"She'll do." He crossed over to the railing, and leaned over the edge. "Doc says she'll be right as rain, give her a few days."

Inara stepped up beside him, pulling her shawl tighter around her shoulders. "It's so strange – isn't it? To think you know someone so well and then …"

"I know. T'aint right." Mal felt his throat tighten. "Well, everybody's true colors shine through, give 'em enough time."

"True colors," she repeated, and sighed. "But how does one know which the true colors are – the person we've known all along, or the one who surprises us in the end?"

"Now you're getting all philosophical on me." Arms crossed, Mal stared down into the bay. "All I know is, when someone's colors shine through purple, I reckon that's a color I don't care to look on any more."

"Purple?" Inara looked briefly confused. Then her features resolved into an expression of shock. "_Marnie_? Marnie was with the Alliance during the war?"

"Seems she was indeed." Mal shrugged. "Never seemed the type to me, but now I've come to think she really ain't quite all she seemed."

"I supported Unification, too, Mal," Inara said quietly. "Or had you forgotten that?"

"Well, supportin' ain't the same as fightin' for," said Mal, who had, in fact, forgotten that. He shifted uncomfortably. "Come on, now. We was just sayin' how she played turncoat on us, playin' with little River's brains as she did – her military record's just one more extremely heavy straw on this here camel's back, is all." He frowned at the Companion. "Exactly here d'you get off complaining about her one second, then scolding me for doing the gorram same?"

Inara stepped back from the rail; Mal nearly staggered under the force of her deadliest Angry Companion Glare. "_I_ was talking about _Simon_," she snapped, and strode away back to her shuttle.

…

It was late that night when River crept onto the bridge and crawled silently into the co-pilot's chair. "Saved your chair for you," she whispered.

"River?" The speakers crackled. "That you?"

"She's here." River drew her knees up under her chin.

"So she is," the pilot agreed. "Where's everyone else?"

"Bedtime now, but no one's abed. Kaylee cries. Captain paces. Jayne sulks. Marnie bleeds, and, yes, Zoe too, but not the same way. Inara prays. And Simon cleans, because he doesn't know what else to do, and feels sorry for himself. All of them bruised, all of them alone." She covered her face with her hands. "This wasn't supposed to _happen_ …"

"Don't cry," Wash pleaded. "I'm no good around pretty girls who cry. Makes me all _fan zao_. You want to be responsible for me flying this ship into an asteroid?"

River removed her head from her hands, looking around suspiciously. "Someone's here …"

"Zoe?" asked Wash, both hope and despair coloring his voice.

"'Fraid not," said a voice from the stairway to the cockpit. "Oof." Marnie grunted as she pulled herself through the hatch. River stared as the older woman, wearing only her nightshirt, collapsed into the pilot's chair. "It's all right," she grumbled, "don't give me a hand. T'ain't as if I been shot today or anything. Oh, _wait_."

"Momma Bear's seat was too soft, and Papa Bear's was too hard," River said. "This chair's just right, but it doesn't belong to Goldilocks."

"I think we can make an exception just now," Wash cut in hastily. "Also, did you just call me a baby bear?"

River ignored him. "Hurting inside and out. Simon wants you to sleep. Does it hurt when you dream?"

Marnie, in turn, ignored River. "I ain't one to lay still for long. I thought I ought to come up here, try and explain to you all I can about your … condition."

"Condition," repeated Wash wryly. "That's the kindest way of saying 'dead' I've ever heard. But an explanation, now – that's something I won't say no to."

"Well …" Marnie exhaled noisily, rocking back in the chair. "Well. It's hard to know just where to start …"

"That's because _you_ didn't start," River said primly. "He fell, so I caught him. Then you came to Serenity. _Now_ it's your turn."

"Right." Marnie made a face. "That was about the explanation I got when I came aboard. Clear as _hu_, huh? Well. River … caught you, I guess, and I … let you out."

"Clear as _hu_ sounds about right to me," Wash muttered.

"I ain't done yet!" She shifted her position, gingerly holding her side. "As it happens, I used to work on something called neurocircuits when I was a wee bitty girl of a graduate student. Helped to develop them, somewhat, actually. When River made it … clear … to me the sort of help she needed, I started buyin' what kinds of things I needed when we stopped off planetside. Once it was all put together, I hooked her up so she could transfer the data that was … you." Turning pink, she continued, "Truth be told, I ain't one hundred percent sure how it all works. All's I know is, I've got the neurocircuits I set up linked to the navigation computer and shipboard systems, and there you are. There oughta be enough neurotransmitters in the system to let you feel a pretty standard range of emotions. Ever you want t'feel either sexual ecstasy or the bleakest pits of depression, you just give me a holler and I'll set you up right."

"What," Wash said, "I can't feel both at once?"

A smile touched the scientist's face. "Well, we'll see." Her voice grew serious again. "Something else I should tell you. This new brain I made for you ain't perfect. The circuitry ain't gonna last forever … time comes they'll start to decay, and I don't know that I can move you to a new set." Her shoulders slumped. "In fact it ain't real likely I'll be around when the time comes."

Wash hesitated. "How much … how long do I have?"

"Twenty years." Marnie straightened up a bit. "Maybe twenty-five, I teach River how to maintain this stuff, keep it ship-shape."

"You won't leave," River informed her. "Plenty of porridge for you. Someday you'll have a just-right chair, all your own."

"Yeah, well, captain's of a different mind." Marnie crossed her arms and stared down at her bare feet. "And I'm done fighting this battle."

"It's true Mal ain't a man you want to be up against in any sort of battle," Wash said. "I'd be sorry to see you go, us havin' just met, and you bringin' me back to life and such."

A reluctant grin split Marnie's face. "Well, I hate to leave. My life ain't been quite the same since I found this boat." She raised an eyebrow at River. "'Course, that ain't always been a _good_ thing …"

River raised her chin archly. "Don't know _what_ you're talking about."

"Right. Ain't like I been kidnapped, blown up by Reavers, and _shot_ _by your brother_ lately."

"What?" exclaimed Wash. "I leave and you guys start having all kinds of fun!"

"You can't see me right now," said Marnie, "but I am making an _extremely_ rude gesture at the computer right now."

"A blind pilot," he mused. "Never thought you'd see the day, did you?"

They both laughed. There was sadness, buried deep now in both of them, River knew, but there was laughter too, and that would do for now. The girl wrapped her arms around her legs and smiled secretly. It would do for now.


	24. Bridge 4

_Bridge_

_Zoe stepped slowly from step to step, knowing full well he would recognize the sound of those boots coming. She slipped through the hatch; there was Marnie Fletcher, sleeping fitfully in the pilot's chair. Zoe looked down, expressionlessly, at the other woman for a moment. "Wash," she said. The words floated out into the darkness, waiting for a response._

_It came, hesitantly. "Zoe? Baby, is that you?"_

"_It is." She stood behind the empty co-pilot seat, put her hands on the back of it. Her knees were threatening to buckle under her; carefully she tightened her grip. "It's me."_

_Wash was quiet for a long moment. "I was afraid I'd lost you," he said finally. "Again."_

"_I was afraid too." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I still _am_ afraid, truth be told," she admitted._

"_This ain't quite a natural way for married folk to live," Wash acknowledged. "We can make it work, though, baby-doll. We'll work it out!"_

"_Wash!" she cut in. "Wash, we're having a baby."_

_Dead silence again from the speakers. Zoe swallowed hard. "We're having a baby, Wash. And … and I don't know quite how I feel – I don't know how to do that – having to tell that child that his daddy lives in the computer."_

"_We can do it," Wash pleaded. "Zoe …"_

_She raised a hand, forgetting for a moment he couldn't see it. "I know we _can_ do it," she said. "I just … I said it's going to be _hard_, is all. All right? You got to give me a little time to get used to the idea. I have got to have some time, Wash."_

"_All the time you want," he whispered. "All you need."_

_They were quiet then, both needing a moment to be near to each other – as near as could be. Marnie's ragged breathing took the edge off of the silence; Zoe looked at the other woman again, this time letting pity color her gaze._

"_I love you, lamby-toes," Wash said._

_Zoe made herself relax, uncurled her fingers from the back of the chair. She let herself reach down for the feelings she'd long since had to put away. "Love you back, darling. I love you back."_


	25. Part 5: Chapter 1

I.

Kaylee flitted nervously about the engine room, turning a random screw here, tightening a bolt there. Already that morning she had rotated all twenty-seven of the fuel transfer cuffs one slot to the left, for no better reason than that she could. _Keep your hands occupied, and your mind's sure to follow, _she told herselfand reached for a different wrench.

"Kaylee?"

The sound of Simon's voice in the engine room doorway made her jump – and not with joy. "Oh – Simon!" She smiled brightly, whilst willing with all her might that something large and important-looking would burst into flame at that very moment.

No such luck. Simon stepped into the engine room, moving off to one side to give Kaylee room to move around. She danced awkwardly around him, snatching a spanner from the contents of the toolbox she'd previously strewn across the floor. "I – ah, I was just about to overhaul the mainline drive shaft operator, it havin' been sending mistimed signals when the compensator fires and all," she said, stringing random words together as fast as she could think of them.

"Oh." His face fell. "That sounds fairly major. Well … I'll talk to you later, then – for dinner, maybe?"

His kicked-puppy look was too much for her. Nervously she wiped the greasy spanner on her coveralls. "Well, I guess it could wait … you know, a couple of minutes, probably."

He brightened visibly. "I've been trying to find the right moment for days," he said, and took his hand out of his jacket pocket, revealing a tiny envelope. "Then I remembered … Miranda, and I realized that waiting around for the right moment won't do – I have to _make_ the right moment."

_Oh God_, Kaylee thought, freezing in terror, _surely even Simon wouldn't be so oblivious to ask me to marry him at a time like this. And with engine grease in my hair. _Would_ he?_

But he opened the envelope and withdrew a small silver pin, shaped like a tiny hourglass. "It's that 'sterile medical equipment' I picked up before we went to Greenleaf," he said shyly. "In actuality, it's my university pin. Well – not my university pin, personally, but its twin, more or less. It's taken me quite some time to track one down – you'd be surprised at how many Core-trained physicians fail to leave their precious personal belongings behind on a Rim planet."

"Simon?" Kaylee asked hesitantly. "What … what's it for?"

He grinned boyishly, and Kaylee's heart flipped over in her chest. "An old university tradition – you 'pin' a girl that you … that you're really very fond of." He swallowed hard. "That you love, actually. And who … loves you back." Suddenly turning red around the ears, he looked down and fumbled with the pin. "So … I was wondering … if you would let me …"

He held out the pin to her, but, with a shaking hand, she closed his fingers back around it. "Too soon, Simon," she whispered. "Not after … no, I ain't ready. I got to have time, Simon. And space." She wrapped her arms around herself. "Mostly space."

"I …" She watched a large lump work itself up and down in his throat. He looked down at the pin in his hand and nodded. "Yes, of course. I … if you change your mind, if you …" He smiled shakily. "I guess that dinner invitation will have to wait."

"I guess," Kaylee whispered, and watched him turn and trudge back up the stairs. She stared after him for a few long moments, then picked up a wrench and started working on the first fuel transfer cuff. It would take a while to move all twenty-seven one spot to the right, especially if her eyes kept welling over this way …

…

Marnie grunted as she forced her bloated valise closed. "Ain't never gonna be able to lift this," she sighed. "Still can't carry much weight at all, way I'm after feeling. Bugger."

"Perhaps if you hadn't stuffed so many books in there," Inara chided her gently. "You can't live without _The Complete Protein Purification Addendium: Nineteenth Edition_?"

"Maybe-haps I can track down a new copy once that I get settled someplace new," Marnie said, and blew her nose loudly on her sweater sleeve.

"Marnie," the Companion began, reaching out a hand to the other woman. But a loud crash behind them made them both jump, interrupting the words she had meant to say.

"River!" screeched Marnie. Unwatched, the girl had unsealed Marnie's valise and upended all of the contents on the floor. "It's going to take forever to get all this back in," the scientist said, sitting down hard on her bunk and staring down at the mess.

"So don't go," River suggested, and smiled as if this were particularly helpful.

Marnie and Inara glanced at each other; the Companion offered an apologetic shrug. "Well," Marnie said, and dug her hands deep in her pockets. "Well. I guess I'll be leavin' more stuff than I'm truly keen on. But it may just be Simon or Kaylee can find a use for some of that old equipment, and what's of no help y'all may as well pawn once you can find someone who's in a buyin' mood."

River upended another box of socks and various female undergarments of various levels of propriety. "Oh," said Marnie, and sighed again. "Oh. Oh my."


	26. Part 5: Chapter 2

II.

"You checkin' on that thing again?" Zoe shook her head as she strolled down the stairs into the cargo bay. "You worried it's about to grow legs and up and go for a walk?"

"Never know, do you?" Mal put the vial with the tiny cutting of grapevine Inara had stolen from McGrath's vineyard back into the large, padded box Kaylee had rigged to keep it safe. "Luck this crew tends to have, it might decide to do just that."

"Well, I don't know." The first mate leaned against the railing and folded her arms. "Got us a paying job that ain't yet got anyone excessively hurt or dead. Probably a pretty cushy delivery waitin' for us, too." She cocked her head. "And we got my husband back to driving this boat. Luck don't get much better than that for us, sir."

"Well, I don't suppose it does, at that." Mal turned halfway to face her. "How far does that husband of yours say we are from making landfall on New Canaan, anyway?"

"Four, maybe five hours." She shrugged. "We'll set down at around fifteen hundred, local time."

"Sounds good." Mal shoved his hands into his pockets and grinned. "Just wanna make sure we don't run into any—"

"_Mal_!" Jayne came thundering down the stairs. "I got to talk to you!"

"—trouble." Sighing, Mal crossed his arms as Zoe took a seat on a convenient crate. "Always got to have an audience, huh?" he asked her.

"Figured someone ought to be here to make sure you two don't sprain something important trying to stare each other down." She smirked as she folded one leg across the other. "And then it might be funny, too."

"Grand." The captain raised his eyebrows as Jayne pulled up in front. "All right, Jayne, what's got you in a bellowin' sort of mood today?"

The big mercenary glared down at him. "You can't put Fletcher ashore."

Mal stared at him incredulously. "Well, maybe I'm missin' something, but I don't rightly recall havin' _died_ and made you captain, Jayne."

Jayne spared a glance over his shoulder at Zoe, who was looking with sudden intense interest at the ceiling. "Just sayin' it ain't right, Mal. You can't put her ashore. She's as about as smart as two bricks together, and she won't make it half a week alone on New Canaan b'fore a trader gets a hold of her and she ends up in one o' them filthy _ya biao zi_ rings. T'ain't right."

Mal felt his jaw clenching. "Jayne, when I want advice from a solid moral authority, it ain't real likely you'll be the man I turn to. You hear me?"

Shuffling his feet, Jayne muttered, "Well, it _ain't_ right. Crew's inordinate fond of that little bitch." He considered this statement for a moment. "Well, except for Simon."

"The crew, meaning _you_, Jayne?" Mal shook his head. "That woman's far more trouble than she's ever been worth."

"Well, she's worth more than a _ya biao zi_," muttered Jayne. "And a far sight less trouble than the Tams've caused us, too, but you kept _them_ on board."

"_Turn around_," Mal shouted. "Upstairs, _now_. In fact, you can go scrub out the galley until you remember just who is the _captain_ on this gorram boat." Jayne opened his mouth to retort, but the captain cut him off. "I said _now_, Jayne!"

The mercenary turned on his boot heel and stomped up the stairs the way he had come. "T'ain't right, Mal!" he shouted over his shoulder, "and you gorram well know it!"

The hatch upstairs crashed shut. Mal looked back at Zoe, who had a strange expression on her face. "You got something to add to that?"

She stood, and gave him a long, sad look. "War's over for some folk, sir. Jayne wasn't there, and he just ain't able to understand why you still got to be fighting it."

Mal realized, watching her back as she climbed back up, that she hadn't included herself as still fighting.

…

"… and watch out for nice men in fancy suits," said Wash urgently. "You'll end up sold down the river as fast as you please." He paused. "Except there's no river, and it probably won't please you real well."

"Yeah, I know," Marnie grunted. "Inara explained about the _ya biao zi_ traders to me. Ain't exactly my choice of lifestyle. I mean, I did things I ain't proud of to get through grad school, but leastaways I was getting' _paid_ for it."

"Ah, for the love of science," Wash chuckled.

Marnie put her head on the pilot's console. "I don't want to get off," she whined. "Probably gonna get eaten alive out there. Too bad I'll _definitely_ get chewed up by the captain if I stick around here."

"Mal is a reasonable man," protested Wash. "Just hide somewhere and hang around for awhile. He'll cool off; he always does!" He considered this briefly. "Well, except for when he doesn't."

"Thanks for the suggestion," she said, and wearily climbed to her feet. "And the advice. I best finish getting my things together before we hit dirt, though."

"Hit dirt," said Wash in a hurt voice. "I promise not to crash us. _This_ time."

The scientist smiled slightly as she stepped out of the cockpit. "Take care of yourself, computer man."

"Don't take any wooden nickels!" Wash called after her. "Or, you know, get sold into sex slavery!"

…

Marnie paused in the hallway downstairs and rested her head against the cool bulkhead wall, listening to the bellowing voices echoing up from the cargo bay. _He can't make me leave_, she thought wildly, knowing full well that the captain could do exactly that. And why shouldn't he? She'd tricked and lied her way aboard – why should she expect to be respected after that?

_I don't want respect. I just don't want to have to leave again._ Where else would she find people like Wash and Inara and Kaylee and … and Jayne, and crazy little River? _I wonder if it's considered weird to have a crush on your first mate's dead husband who lives in the computer? _she thought, and hiccupped. _Don't make me leave this. I can be good. I could be useful. As useful as Jayne, anyhow._

A terrible, wonderful thought struck her suddenly – a thought on the order normally associated with Grinches and the stealing of major holidays. _Yes. I can do it. I can do it … probably?_ She looked around furtively, willing her heart to stop pounding, then flung herself down the ladder to Jayne's quarters.


	27. Part 5: Chapter 3

III.

"Here ya go." Kaylee handed Marnie a warm, sweet-smelling package wrapped in a paper napkin. "Dug up some scraps here and there – enough to make you up a few sugar cookies for the road." She gave the taller woman a nervous hug. "Now, don't forget to change your bandages once a day, like Simon said, and take your pills till they're all gone. Right?"

"Right," Marnie said, and stepped back, glancing over her shoulder. "Real cookies, huh? And all a body's got to do is disembark. Well, if I'd known that sooner, I might've gotten out of gettin' shot." She tweaked Kaylee's nose at the mechanic's crestfallen look. "Aww, Kaylee, don't you mind about me." She put an arm around the girl's shoulders and turned to Zoe and Inara. "You two won't let our Miss Frye here feel too terrible awful once I go, now will you?"

"Well, you know this girl – she can go on a mighty stubborn streak, she gets it in her head." Zoe leaned back and stuck her thumbs in her pockets, smiling her slow, easy smile. "We'll do such as we can, though."

"Is there anything else you need to take with you, Marnie?" Inara gestured to the scientist's considerably slimmed-down suitcase. "Or want? If it's a question of heaviness, I have some very light cloaks that would keep you quite warm without filling up your entire luggage. Nights get cold on New Canaan, I'm told."

"No, I'm just as well without," Marnie said hastily. "Don't figure as I'd look quite right in a Companion's get-up – wouldn't much do to get tossed in jail for robbin' a fancy lady my first night in town."

"I suppose it wouldn't, at that." Inara said, and bit her lip as Marnie glanced up at the stairway into the cargo bay. "Is there … do you need clean underwear?"

Marnie dropped her head and laughed, looking embarrassed. _I know that you know that I know_, the Companion thought. "Ahhh … no. Thank you kindly, Inara. I oughtn't dilly-dally around here any longer." She reached down and hefted her luggage by its shoulder strap. "Thank you all, truly. It's been a right pleasure to know you fine folk. Gives a woman something to aspire to."

One more wave, and the other three women watched her slink down the ship's ramp and away into the afternoon, murmuring farewells and wishes of good luck. As they turned to head back up into the ship, toward the recently-unused stairwell, Inara made a mental note: _Try to be unkind to Jayne for the next week or two_._ Maybe a little longer, if he doesn't look miserable enough._

…

Simon drifted aimlessly through the infirmary, doing his routine equipment cleaning and maintenance. He'd found some scalpels less sharp than he preferred while working on Marnie's chest wound – that would have to be fixed before he needed them again.

_At least she's gone, and River's safe now._

Of course, that left him with Marnie's clutter to clean up and throw away. How had she managed to accumulate so much in just a few months? Simon grimaced at the random assortment of vials and chemicals as the mice scurried around in their cages. "And what am I going to do with all of you?" He had a sudden vision of real meat for dinner – deep-fried and smothered in gravy – before wondering exactly what sorts of unpleasant-to-eat things Marnie had injected into them_. Besides, Kaylee would never forgive me._

That thought made him cringe; he turned away from the mice and dug back into his cleaning. The last few days had featured him and the mechanic dancing around each other in the hallway and avoiding each other at mealtimes. Kaylee threw the wounded scientist up between them like a missile shield every time they passed each other in the Serenity's creaking corridors – it hurt, it hurt a great deal, and the doctor found himself unable (or unwilling?) either to move on or to take back the damage he'd done.

Well. Soon things would be back to normal, he hoped. Kaylee would forgive or forget, given time. Marnie Fletcher was gone now, and that was all that mattered.

…

"It doesn't matter!" River sighed, as she sprawled back in the co-pilot's seat. "Stop being such a _baby_. Peter Pan has to grow up someday."

"Oh yeah?" Wash demanded. "And what do you think we're going to do when Peter Pan can't fly anymore, then?"

River pondered this for a moment. "This will require further calculations," she pronounced firmly.

"Yeah, yeah, calculate your little heart out. In the meantime, the person who happens to be able to rig me up with video input and keep me running at full speed has just disembarked, leaving me high and dry." He briefly considered the circuit box oozing a greenish fluid behind the pilot's console. "Well … high, anyway."

"Worry, worry, worry," River scolded him. "A bad habit for a pilot to have. Or is it a bad pilot for a habit to have?" She giggled at his growl.

"Why are you so gorram happy anyhow?" the pilot wanted to know. "Dr. Fletcher was a friend of yours, unless I'm much mistaken. You ain't glad to see her go. Are you?"

"Oh, Wash," the girl said, tossing her hair out of her eyes. "No one ever really leaves Serenity. Not _really_. Marnie still lives in this house."

"You are an exceptionally strange young lady," Wash said, with no little exasperation. River preened happily at the compliment.


	28. Part 5: Chapter 4

Phew … it's been a little while again. Lucky (?) for me, I got to go in for an emergency appendectomy Friday night, so I've had some nice writin' time this week while I rest up. :) Happy reading!

IV.

The sun set slowly over New Canaan's industrial district, casting long shadows behind Zoe and Mal as they strode down the city's dingy excuse for a main street. _Been mugged in nicer alleys than this_, the first mate thought as she brushed a hand against her pistol in its holster. It was a quiet walk – Marnie's exile seemed to suck the air out of the space between them – and Zoe was glad when their target came into view at last.

"This looks like the spot," she told Mal, pausing outside the corroded-looking warehouse. "Time for a quick scan around the place?"

The captain nodded. "Do it."

Grabbing a convenient handhold, Zoe swung herself up onto the roof. The building wasn't too old and decrepit to support her weight, and she crept along the edges, scanning the sides of the place for unwanted company.

A few moments later, she was dropping back down into place beside the captain. "Everything looks clean," she said. "Don't hardly even feel an itchy trigger finger anymore, place looks so quiet."

"Don't suppose it would be possible to have a deal run smooth for once," Mal mused. "Or maybe we just got all the trouble for this one out o' the way back on Greenleaf?"

Zoe watched as he fidgeted the vial of cuttings between his fingers. "Seein' as you didn't even forget to bring the goods along, I'm going to go out on a limb and say we might do all right this time. After you, sir?" She stepped aside and let Mal push the rust-brown door open.

The inside of the warehouse was well-lit – someone had rigged bright lamps around the ceiling, and there was a table with a worn but clean tablecloth and wine glasses on it. "This looks fancy," Mal muttered to Zoe. "It looks like I'm gonna end up in a swordfight or something similarly stupid, you stop me."

"Something stupid," the first mate mused. "That gives me just an _awful_ lot o' free rein, don't you think, sir?"

"Captain Reynolds!" The pair turned to see Martin Scofield, their client _du jour_, bearing down upon them. To his credit, the captain managed to barely flinch as the burly winemaker slapped him on the back. "Glad to see you made it. And … I hope the goods made it, as well?"

Mal gave the other man the shortest flash of a peek at the vial in his hand. "They surely did. And while we're on the topic of who's here and who ain't, would there happen to be some cash roundabout here with my captainly name on it?"

"Of course, of course!" Scofield gestured to two large, bodyguard-ish men, who carried forward twin bags of something that sounded pleasantly clinky and money-like to Zoe's trained ear. At Scofield's motion, they placed the bags on the table between the wineglasses. "Before you go, thought, I'd hoped you might join me for a celebratory drink." He wrung his hands. "You've done so very well. I wanted to thank you properly – so that you might consider staying in contact for future work?"

Mal and Zoe shared a look that rode the border between relief and smugness. "I think that sounds mighty nice, Mr. Scofield!" the captain said, giving the winemaker a slap on the back to rival the one he'd received earlier. "Lead on!" He flashed Zoe a huge grin. "I think this just might be the smoothest deal that we—"

"Sirt!" Two more men, in the same dress as Scofield's first two bodyguards, came running into the room, dragging someone between them. "We found this bint lurking around the back door. Had a gun, too. What do you want us to do?"

"—that we never been on," Mal finished with a groan, as Marnie's tear-stained, blotchy face looked up at him from between the two guards.

"I jus' wanted to help, Mal!" the scientist sobbed, pulling at the guards' hands on her arms. Mal watched, stone-faced, as one of the men handed Scofield what looked like Jayne's leather hand-grip pistol, Betty. "The deal _always_ goes sour, Mal – I thought I was gonna help!"

_And you done a peach job of that_, Zoe thought, looking at the captain's grim expression. _Oh, little girl. You done a peach job of that._

"This is one of yours, Captain Reynolds?" Scofield asked angrily. "I must say, I'm somewhat disappointed to see you felt you needed backup. It doesn't indicate a great deal of _trust_ – a quality that I'd think would be sorely needed if this relationship were to continue."

Zoe said nothing, watching the gears turn behind the captain's eyes. She recognized the moment where he made his decision, and took a step back as he committed to it.

The captain strode forward and shook Marnie by the lapels, nearly tearing her out of the guards' startled grip. "What have I told you?" he bellowed, causing the scientist to bawl louder. "_No touching guns_. For god's _sake_."

The guards had stepped back, gaping confusedly at each other now. Marnie's mouth, too, had formed a perfect 'O' of bewilderment. Zoe rolled her eyes skyward as the captain shook his finger in the scientist's face. "You're not getting any dessert rations for a month, do you hear me, missy? A solid _month_!" With that he tucked her under his arm (with Marnie cringing slightly) and turned again to the client. "I cannot apologize enough, Mr. Scofield. My sister here ain't never been quite right in the head, but I try to look after her best as I can, our sainted parents havin' passed on all those years ago." He sighed dramatically; Zoe covered her hand with her mouth to hide anything that might resemble a hysterical giggle from escaping. "She'd like to be a help more than anything, but she ain't always got the most sensible judgment when it comes to such things. Do you, child?"

Marnie burbled something that sounded like an apology in Scofield's general direction, but the fat man shushed her, a sympathetic look on his round face. "Now, now, my dear, don't cry. You've done no harm. Yes?" He looked up from patting her shoulder to Mal's face, which had taken on the expression of a suffering saint. "No damage done, captain, except that I think we shall have to cancel those drinks for now."

"Not a bad idea." Mal passed him the vial of cuttings with his free hand. "Thank you kindly for your business, and your … kindness, Mr. Scofield. You're an understanding kind of gent."

"Think nothing of it," scoffed Scofield. "Now do, take your pay and be off. This poor creature looks as if she needs a hot cup of tea, and," he leaned in closer to whisper in Mal's ear, "her medications?"

"Quite right, quite right," said the captain, keeping an admirably straight face. He tightened his grip on the back of Marnie's neck so that her indignant gasp turned into another bout of sobbing. "We'll be off, then. Zoe?"

"Got the cash, sir." Zoe shouldered the two bags.

"Well, that's that, then. It's been a real nice night, Mr. Scofield!" Mal sketched the silhouette of a salute, and the three made a hasty strategic retreat out of the warehouse and back toward where Serenity waited.


	29. Part 5: Chapter 5

V.

Mal didn't let go of Marnie's collar until they had gotten aboard the ship. He plopped her solidly down on the cargo bay stairs and turned to his second-in-command. "Zoe, get the payload squared away. I'll be up in two shakes of a scientist's head." Zoe nodded crisply, managing to look entirely serious while still betraying an underlying desperate need to share this gossip with the rest of the crew, and took off up the stairs.

The captain picked up the PA mouthpiece. "Wash?" he asked. "We're all aboard, ready for and highly desirous of take-off."

"I'm on it, Cap'n," the pilot squawked over the speakers, as the hatch closed and the ship rumbled to life under Mal's feet. "We leavin' trouble behind?"

"Oh, no," said the captain with a sigh, "we're bringin' her with us." He hung up the mouthpiece, cutting off Wash's confused "What?!" and River's singsong "I toooold you so!" in the background. _That girl's getting to be a right know-it-all_, he thought sourly.

He turned back to Marnie, who looked far more pathetic than a body in her situation had any right to. "Quit your snifflin'," he ordered. "I ain't gonna make you leave the boat before we lift off."

She cringed. "Are you going to make me leave _after_ we lift off?"

"It's not in the plan at the moment." He exhaled noisily and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "No. I'm of a mind to let you stay on board, for the time being." He rolled his eyes at the suddenly rapturous look on her face. "Ji bi xi, don't let it go to your head. Mind you, it ain't on account of you bein' a cool head in a fight, or handy with a shotgun – because you surely ain't. And it ain't on account of you bein' a fair-to-middling scientist who's good at turning an easy dollar. No …" He rubbed an eyebrow as he scowled at the ceiling. "It's because you're a clumsy bumbler who's not equipped to stand alone on her own two purple, shiny boots. And there's some on this crew who'd not take kindly to me pushin' baby birds out of the nest." He pulled her up by one arm, not unkindly. "Now, if I get anything but truth from you in the future, I may just decide the best way to keep you safe is to leave you locked up in your room at all times." With that, he gave her a nudge toward the stairs. "Now git on with you. Mess is in two hours, go get yourself cleaned up. Y'look like a soggy mop that's been in its cups. And besides, it's your turn to do the dishes tonight."

Marnie nodded, blew her nose on her sleeve, and began trudging up the stairs. Mal watched as she craned her neck to look upward at the landing, and heard her exclaim in a tone that conveyed both great delight and great aggravation, "_Jayne_?"

"Oh, there you are," said the mercenary, with all the self-assurance possessed by geniuses and morons everywhere. "Saw somebody pinched Betty outta my stash; figured you'd got some fool notion in your head, and Mal would have to haul you back here for some sort o' talking-to."

"That is a depressingly accurate summary." Marnie pushed past him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wash my face, change my clothes, and – hopefully – find some dignity." She glanced down at her now-snotty sleeve, and sighed. "Maybe Inara left some lying around."

"Well, hurry up with all that," Jayne grumbled. "Doc, Kaylee and me got a game of Blitz all but dealt out, and we're in need of a fourth."

"Blitz?" Marnie stopped suddenly with her foot in the air between two steps. "Four-Corner Blitz?"

"With a widow's hand and force on the dealer," Jayne confirmed, following her up the last few steps. "Well? You gonna git cleaned up or what?"

"Cleaned up?" Marnie grinned, and pushed him ahead of her down the hallway. "I don't have time to get cleaned up – I'm gonna be too busy cleanin' out _your_ billfold! Last one to the common room's Reaver bait … "

The sound of much scuffling and general tomfoolery echoed back down the stairway to Mal. _So who's more foolish?_ he wondered to himself. _The fools themselves? Or the fool who lets them other fools play merry hell with his very expensive and fragile spaceship?_

"Well, Captain." Mal jumped as Inara glided in from the wings like an actress striking her mark. "You do have something of a poor record with kicking people off of this ship, don't you?"

"Yeah, well …" The captain shrugged at her. "I guess I'm just gettin' to be a great big softie in my old age, is all."

"Is that so?" Inara made a thoughtful face. "Does that mean you're going to stop charging me rent?"

Mal snorted loudly. "I ain't soft in the _head_, woman!" He took her elbow and started leading her up the stairs. "But, in the interests of showing my good will, I'd be willing to enter into a friendly wager with your ladyship with regards to the outcome of the card game goin' on upstairs."

Looking baffled, Inara followed along with him. "You want to bet on the winner of the game?" she asked.

"Oh, no." Mal grinned and beckoned for her to go ahead of him through the doorway. "I'm lookin' to see who starts the first _fight_ …"


	30. Bridge 5

_Bridge_

"_Well, now." Mal stood in the mess hall, fists on his hips, and surveyed the disaster in front of him. The better part of a deck of cards was scattered across the floor, beverages were spilled on the table, and a dishful of fried noodles had been thrown across the whole room. Behind him, Inara chuckled in a most un-ladylike fashion at the scene laid out before them. "Would someone care to explain just exactly what happened in here?"_

_Simon, still sitting at the table with the last hand he had been dealt clutched in a death grip, cleared his throat. He had noodles in his hair. "Well, captain, we were just enjoying a rousing game of Blitz … as it happened, a few hands in a row went in Jayne's favor. It was at that point that Marnie accused him of stacking the deck."_

_Kaylee nodded vigorously, tilting back her seat at the head of the table. "She called him a filthy cheat!"_

_Mal sighed. _Ain't that woman got a lick of sense?_ "All right. Then what?"_

"_Jayne requested that she calm down," Simon continued._

"_He told her to go sit and spin," Kaylee put in._

"_Marnie then commented on Jayne's sexual preferences …"_

"_She told him to go hump a pig!"_

"_Which he then returned in kind."_

"_He asked if that meant she was propositioning him."_

"_At which juncture Marnie made certain statements regarding Jayne's … ancestry."_

"_She said his ma must've been seduced by the smelliest water buffalo on the planet he was born. Or that maybe his pa was."_

Not one damn lick of sense at all_, Mal thought._

"_Jayne then proceeded to retrieve that packing tape from the kitchen, tackle Marnie, and … I believe the phrase is 'hog-tied'? He hog-tied her. To the, ah, ceiling."_

_They all looked up. Marnie, gagged with her own goggles, glared down at them. "Gorram it, woman!" Mal scolded. "What have we told you_? Let the mercenary win_!"_

_Marnie said something unintelligible; Mal stepped on a chair and freed her goggles from her mouth. "I hate that man very, very much," she said distinctly._

"_Yeah, don't we just know it." Mal smirked and snapped the goggles back onto her forehead. "He can be a tough 'un to get along with, can't he just? In fact I sure would hate to get on the man's bad side by letting you down." He stepped off the chair. "Might be a good object lesson for you with regards to losin' your temper with folk twice your size. Doc, Kaylee, 'Nara, would you all care to join me for some Blitz … somewheres more comfortable, maybe?"_

_The cards were collected and the giggling crew retreated. "I hate _everyone_," Marnie announced to the empty room. "Also, my nose itches."_


	31. Part 6: Chapter 1

Author's notes: Dear sweet holy cow, it has been a long time since I've written in here! It is likely to continue to be a long time between updates, because life is ridiculously busy. I'm sorry! Hopefully you do enjoy the current installation, and hopefully many more (distantly interspersed) chapters yet to come …

"Happy birthday to me," sang River, and turned a pirouette in the middle of the common area. "Happy birthday to meeee …"

"You know," Kaylee grumbled, as she pulled a bright-pink cake out of the oven, "it ain't half so much fun throwin' a surprise party for someone who already knows it's comin'. Inara, you wanna pass me the frosting there?"

"I could pretend not to know there's a cake, if you prefer," River said innocently as she pulled up to the counter. "I could even pretend not to know it's a strawberry cake."

"Why, you—" Kaylee flicked flour at River, sending dusty snowflakes cascading over the giggling girl, who scurried away.

"Whoa now!" Marnie exclaimed, as River dashed past the chair the scientist was balancing on. She grabbed onto the ceiling to steady herself. "No breaking the sensitive equipment, missy. Or the sensitive scientist." Appearing satisfied that the danger had been allayed for the time being, she finished connecting the last few bare wires to the camera and small speaker she had mounted in the ceiling.

"—it finished? How about now? How about now?" babbled Wash's voice, sounding crackly over the cheap speaker.

"It's finished!" Marnie interrupted quickly, as Kaylee clapped her hands in excitement.

"Wash! You're just in time for a somewhat-less-than-surprising birthday party!" the mechanic announced with a grin. "Now you can see the festivities an' everything!"

"Yeah, but I'm still waiting for the good Dr. Fletcher to invent a way for me to eat birthday cake," Wash said wryly.

The scientist shrugged. "Sorry, that feature won't be released until Wash version 2.0. Until then, be happy with the updates you've got, or—" She waved a wire-cutter from her toolkit menacingly in front of the camera lens. "—they might, you know, malfunction."

"Point taken," said Wash hastily. "Nice to actually see you for the first time, by the way. Have I mentioned how you look even more brilliant and talented than I expected?"

"Oh, very smooth," said Inara dryly, as Jayne walked in and stuck a finger straight into the bowl of frosting. She swatted his hand. "Jayne Cobb! I certainly hope you washed up before you came down here."

River pulled the bowl away from Jayne and twirled it around between her palms. "I'm nineteen today. A real adult." She smiled up at him and batted her long eyelashes. "One hundred percent legal."

Jayne nearly fell over a chair as he retreated rapidly to the opposite side of the room from River as the four women laughed hysterically. _She certainly _is_ growing up_, Inara thought with amusement. _And into a regular little flirt! Heaven help us if she decides she wants to be a Companion instead of a pilot ..._

"It sounds like there's hilarity goin' on in my galley," Mal said as he sauntered through the door. "Did I give y'all permission to be havin' hilarity in here?"

"Sorry, cap'n," Kaylee replied, dipping a spatula into the frosting bowl and sweeping a wide swath over the cake. "You know how Jayne just kinda causes hilarity wherever he goes. Besides: birthday cake! How's a gal supposed to contain herself when there's real birthday cake to get ate?"

"True enough, true enough." Mal turned to River. "I surely hope you are having a good birthday, young miss, because you are under captain's orders to do just that."

"Yes sir, captain sir." She snapped off a smart salute, while keeping a sassy smile on her face.

Wagging a finger at her, Mal pulled a battered volume out of his coat pocket. "Ain't no one ever told you to be nice to your captain? Especially when he buys you shinies." He handed the book over to the girl, cover side up – it was a manual of Firefly specifications and technical information. "Now I imagine it'll take you all of five minutes to read that thing cover to cover, but it's more'n me or Kaylee can ever hope to teach you, so it will just have to do," he informed her.

She laughed with delight. "Five whole minutes? Going to read it in two now, just to show you!"

"For a nineteen-year-old young lady? Technical manuals _indeed_," Inara said with her very haughtiest sniff – shortly before cracking a smile. She drew a small box from her shawl. "The ladies of this vessel all contributed to get these for our birthday girl."

River opened the box and cooed over the pair of silver hoop earrings inside. "It had better not hurt too much," she informed the Companion with a raised eyebrow.

"Little miss, you've been hacked at by Reavers," Kaylee reminded her. "How bad can a little needle in your ear be?"

"Could be worse," commented Marnie, re-arranging the tools hanging from her belt. "Kaylee tried to pick out a pair of sparkly teddy-bears for you. Possibly with half a mind t'ward borrowing 'em?"

"Hmph," said Kaylee, and swiped more frosting onto the cake.

"I ain't bought you anything," Jayne called from across the room. "I figgered I'd stop calling you 'crazy' for a good week or so." He glared at her across the room. "That ain't like to happen if you keep actin' so … so crazy, though."

River grinned. "I'll take what I can get, then, won't I?" She gave him a lewd wink; everyone in the room but Jayne and Marnie laughed as Marnie promptly fell off of her chair.

Zoe and Simon strolled in just then, the doctor pausing amidst the general merriment to tuck a parcel back under his arm. "Is the party starting already? I didn't realize I was late."

"You're not late," Inara told him, watching Kaylee put the finish touches on the frosting. "In fact I believe you're just in time for festivities to begin!"

"Excellent." He glanced furtively at Kaylee. "Very pretty." Her gaze flickered nervously up at him, then back down to the cake. "Uh … the cake is very pretty. It smells delicious too."

"Only one way to tell," Zoe cut in smoothly. "You care to do the honors of the first cut, little miss?" She presented River with a dinner knife as Kaylee carried the cake over to the dinner table.

"Why you got to be giving her a knife?" Jayne muttered nervously, and found a few more inches to back away from the table. "Bad things happen to me when she's got a knife …"

"Take as much as you want," Kaylee encouraged River as she made the first slice. "If'n you take enough, might be there won't be enough left for Jayne to have any."

"Just as long as there's enough for me!" Marnie insisted. "I need something to soothe my wounded pride." She sat down on the bench with a wince. "And my wounded _tun bu_."

River giggled as she transferred a thick pink wedge onto her plate. "Think there's plenty to go around, so don't worry too hard." She dug a fork in. "Mmmm. It's perfect, Kaylee!" She grinned deviously. "And I am so very, very surprised by it!"

"Sassafrass," muttered Kaylee, but she was smiling too as she helped herself to a fingerful of frosting.

Simon slid into the seat next to River, placing the package he had brought in front of her. "Well, before you get too sticky, _mei-mei_, why don't you take a moment to open this?"

"Oh, twist her arm!" Still half-distracted by cake and Kaylee, River slid a finger deftly along the seam of the package, letting the brown paper wrapping fall open.

Inside, Inara saw, was a beautiful figurine shaped like a ballerina, mid-arabesque. She was perfectly formed, from her pink lips down to the folds of her dress, and clearly picked out with love, consideration, and a fair piece of someone's savings account.

It was, she realized, the perfect gift for a fourteen-year-old sister.

"How lovely!" the Companion exclaimed in the awkward silence. She swooped in as River looked blankly at the ballerina. "Here, River, let me put it someplace safer than the kitchen table, with all these dessert plates flying around." River put the figure into her hands gratefully as she continued. "Shall I bring in some tea, while I'm up? Does anyone want coffee?"

She swept into the kitchen as the crew called out drink orders ("I'll have some tea, just pour it into my lens cap," shouted Wash; "Oh no, you don't," Marnie screeched.) Had Simon noticed anything was amiss? She hoped not – between his heartsick glances at Kaylee and the general commotion of the birthday party, he seemed fairly well distracted.

River, on the other hand, was twirling her fork absently in her cake crumbs and staring off into space.


	32. Part 6: Chapter 2

II.

"Well, if you ask me, it's a damnfool idea," Jayne muttered. He scrabbled with the keys for a moment before fitting them into the mule's ignition. "We ain't never had nothing but trouble with passengers, and I don't see that changing anytime soon."

"No one did ask you," pointed out Zoe as she slung two empty canvas bags over her shoulder. "And aside from the Tams, we ain't never had too much in the way of problems with the folk we've carried."

Kaylee clucked disapprovingly. "Aw, Zoe! Don't you remember Granny Daisy?" Her folding chair rattled noisily as she dragged it down the ramp into the bright patch of sunlight outdoors. "Y'know, that sweet old lady t'was involved with that smuggling ring?"

The first mate rolled her eyes skyward. "Now how'd I forget that one? Took us near on a week to clean up all that mess. But that's a short string of troubles for a long stretch of carting people around. Anyway, captain says we're taking on passengers, and take them on we shall." She strode over to the intercom and keyed in. "Husband, we heard any word from Inara yet?"

"She called in not twenty minutes ago, made safe landfall on Regina," Wash announced. "Says she misses us something fierce, and are we _sure_ we don't care to join her for a nice vacation trip to a little mining town?"

His wife snorted. "I ain't going anywhere near the scene of the train job again, if I can help it. Hopefully Ezra's somewhat less of a hellhole, though I surely don't plan on staying 'round long enough to find out."

"Why not?" Marnie asked, accepting the straw baskets Zoe pushed into her arms. "Seems like a nice enough planet, from all I've seen – couple o' nice cities, rolling farmland, et cetera, et cetera …"

"All that's true enough," Kaylee informed her, striding back up the ramp to seize her parasol from where it had been tucked away under the stairs. "Also happens to be the case that Adlai Niska's SkyPlex orbits this ol' rock, and that is one person we don't entirely care to run into again."

"Eeesh," said Wash. The ship trembled slightly under their feet.

"Easy, dear." Zoe grinned up at the ceiling over the heads. "He'd be hard pressed to get at you now, is my guess."

"Let's hope that's the case." Mal strode down the stairs, hands in his pockets. "We ain't gonna sit here dirt-side long enough for him to take notice anyhow. Ezra's a big place, so it shouldn't be hard to avoid spyin' eyes for a few little hours."

"That's the hope, anyway," Zoe said. "Cap'n, Jayne's off to pick us up some fuel; Miss Kaylee's in passenger-recruitin' mode, and Fletch and I are off to find us something with at least a passing resemblance to food."

"Please be slightly more selective than that," Mal grunted. "If I may remind you, wax fruit bears at least a passing resemblance to food."

Zoe smirked. "But it's just so doggone purty, sir, how could such delicate little ladies as we resist?"

The look Mal gave her could have wilted grass. "Just try to round up some meat or something. Another three months on protein packets just might kill me."

"Well, as long as you don't die somewhere inconvenient and far-away-like, at least the rest of us'll be eating meat then." Tossing her hair across her shoulder, Zoe nodded to Marnie. "All right, miss. Let's be off before the captain starts adding to the shopping list and we end up spending all our money on booze."

"All booze and no whores?" Jayne shook his head disapprovingly. "Now there's a ruttin' waste if I ever saw one."

"You all behave while you're on solid ground," Mal warned them. "Don't draw too much attention to yourselves. If one of you gets tortured to death there is gonna be a lot of blood and entrails about, and do you think I'm cleaning it up? _No sir_."

"Whatever you say, Grandaddy," said Kaylee, looking about as pert as possible.

Mal sighed. "Young'uns these days got no respect for their elders. All right, I'm off to go see a man about a Lassiter. Y'all be back here by three hours from now or you're gettin' left!"

…

Kaylee tried hard not to doze off in her comfortable chair in the warm patch of sunlight she'd found. Hardly anyone had approached her to discuss passage, either, which wasn't helping her achieve wakefulness. _Five minutes ain't gonna hurt Mal, if he don't know about it …_

"Excuse me? Ma'am?" The nervous voice jolted her out of her drowsing. She blinked her eyes open to focus on a young man – nineteen, maybe twenty years old. Beside him was a sweet-faced girl with angel-blonde hair, who must've been three or four years his junior; her wide-eyed stare reminded Kaylee more than a little of River when she'd first come aboard. "Sorry to bother you, ma'am." The boy twisted his cap between his hands as he continued. "My little sister and I were hoping we might discuss the matter of, uh, transportation with you?"

"Sure enough, sure enough." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Where you two thinking of bein' transported to?"

"Osiris, miss," the girl said shyly. "Are you passing close by there?"

"A matter of fact, our captain was thinking on putting into Ariel for some doctorin' supplies!" The mechanic snapped her fingers. "Ain't but a hop, skip, and a jump over to Osiris from there. Sounds like a perfect fit to me …" She hesitated. "You do have money to pay your way, don'tcha? You seem a mite young to be travellin' so far alone, is why I ask."

The boy pulled a bag from a clip at his waist and showed Kaylee the contents: a fair pocketful of credits. "And I can work to pay for our room and board, too, if that's not enough," he added awkwardly.

Kaylee shook her head. "Well, we'll talk to the captain about a fair price, but I think you're set and then some, so don't worry there, all right?" She gestured over her shoulder. "Grab your things and come on aboard!"


	33. Part 6: Chapter 3

III.

Mal strode up the ramp, feeling something like a bounce in his step. _And despite all this heavy cash-money weighing my pocket down. _Good jobs had been scarce since word got around after Miranda – having all of your usual contacts systematically murdered tended to make folk reluctant to deal with you. Having Martin Scofield as a reliable contractor was a dearly needed bounty for the captain at this point – it was leftover goodwill from the Greenleaf job that had the liquor mogul pointing Mal toward a buyer for the Lassiter, after all. The captain was glad he hadn't let Inara use her clients to sell the gun earlier – the Operative might have tracked them down, too, and right now the Companion was the only one among them enjoying regular business. Something about a lady of class and dignity falling in with a crew of brigands and rebels and adventurers … Now that people had started to realize the part she'd played in the madness at Miranda, she'd become very popular indeed. Mal wondered if he should raise her rent by 10 …

As he came aboard, he was pleased to note that the Mule was safely stowed, Zoe and Marnie were unloading the boxes of groceries, and Kaylee had packed up her lawn chair. It looked like she had picked them up a pair of new passengers, too.

"Captain!" The mechanic waved him over. "This here's Samuel Corgan, and his sister Rose. They're here for passage to Osiris."

"That ain't so far out of our way at all." Mal gave the boy's hand a firm shake. "Think we can manage a little side trip just fine. Welcome to Serenity."

"Thank you, sir." The boy returned his gaze. "I want you to know, too, if my fare isn't enough, I'll work to pay the way for my sister and me."

Mal glanced sidelong at Kaylee, who shook her head. "Mighty thoughtful of you, son, but completely unnecessary. We've already got us some hired muscle around here." _Who I see has stored the fuel cells and disappeared to his bunk before I can give him anything else to do._ "So just make yourselves comfortable in the passenger dorms for the duration. You got kin or some such on Osiris?"

Samuel looked at his sister, whose lower lip was trembling. "It's our middle sister, sir," he said quietly. "She's been in the care of our uncle, over in Jiao Gong City, ever since our folks passed on. From the Bowden's Malady, y'know. Well, Uncle Howard passed on this week past, too. So we're off to collect her, and bring her home with us, as she belongs."

"Your _middle_ sister?" Kaylee's brow furrowed. "What's she need you two to come an' fetch her for?"

"She ain't …" Rose looked up at the ceiling so that they wouldn't see the tears in the corners of her eyes. "She ain't quite right in the head, miss."

"Well, we got plenty of that goin' on around here." Mal slapped Samuel on the shoulder, liking the stoic set in the boy's jaw. "We'll have you there in a regular lickety-split, so don't worry."

"Uh …" the boy said, his gaze drifting to a point somewhere above and to the left of Mal's shoulder. "Er …" he continued helplessly, as his ears turned bright red.

Mal turned and looked, to where River was peering with interest from the catwalk overhead. She'd managed to filch one of Kaylee's prettier dresses for the day, the captain noted. She smiled down at them indulgently. "Hello, strangers," she said, tilting her head to the side.

The overall effect could best be described as enchanting. "H-hello, miss," Samuel stuttered, and doffed his battered cap. By now his ears had had a chance to spread the deep blush to the rest of his face. Mal glanced at Rose, who was sporting quite a smirk indeed. He shared a brief grin with her, then took Samuel by the arm and began leading him up the stairs. "All right, boy, Miss River here will show you and your sister the passenger dorms and the mess hall, which you have yourself the run of. Welcome aboard!"

He handed the Corgans and their baggage over into the younger Tam's care (with a sly wink to the seer), and whistled his way back down the stairs to supervise the ladies as they stowed the supplies. _Two paying passengers – without a bit smuggled cargo under our noses for them to stumble upon – and with any luck it'll have Simon climbing the walls, too. _ Things couldn't be going better, it seemed.

…

Jayne stumbled down the darkened street, as the electric lamps flared into light overhead. _Ship was parked in station 2B, near the end of the main drag … ain't I there yet?_ It was hard to think clearly; somehow his head felt half-full of fog and cobwebs. He remembered that he'd gotten out of the fueling station far ahead of schedule – why had he gone back out into the city again?

He patted his chest pocket, feeling a paper bag crunch inside. _Candy, for the girls. _Two chocolate-covered strawberries for Kaylee, a packet of lemon drops for a certain sour scientist. A bag of jellybeans for the crazy girl – he wasn't about to leave her out in case she made him see centipedes in his bed-sheets. Again.

But he hadn't been at the candy shop for hours – couldn't have been. And yet it'd been half past noon on planet-side time when he left the ship the second time, and now it was well past nightfall.

No, there had been a bar too, Jayne was fairly sure he remembered that. He'd just stopped in for a moment of whistle-wetting; he wasn't stupid enough to get drunk when he was off the ship and all alone. But there'd been that kid – some eager young'un – who'd recognized Jayne as one of the key players in the drama at Miranda (Lord knew his face had been plastered on enough vidscreens across the 'Verse to make a man mighty uncomfortable) and insisted on buying him a drink. It had been just _one_ drink, Jayne was quite positive he'd insisted on no more than that.

So what had happened in the intermediate eight hours?

Jayne lumbered to a stop and raised his eyes. Station 2B was empty.

"Gorram it anyways!" He picked up a rock and flung it through the empty space. "You _wu yong_ … didn'tcha think to check and make sure you _had_ everyone before y'took off and left me here?!"

"That's him," someone behind Jayne said. He spun around, reaching for his gun, but it wasn't at his belt where he trusted it to be. Before he could react, there were two tranq darts in his belly – and apparently someone had taken care not to underestimate his size when they fixed up the dosage. The ground spun nauseatingly up to meet him, and he felt the strawberries burst against his chest as he hit the pavement.

_Ai ya, it just ain't my day …_


	34. Part 6: Chapter 4

IV.

Mal pulled out his chair and looked around the largely empty table. "Hot food set out, and there's seats without bottoms in 'em," he observed. "What in the weird wild 'verse is going on here?"

"The kids are still running around bein' kids," Kaylee informed him. "I saw 'em raid the mess not too long ago, so they ain't gonna be hungry again just yet. Last I saw they were back off to the dorms so River could teach the Corgans how to play Three-Corner Blitz."

"Don't worry, Doc," Mal said heartily, catching sight of Simon's set jaw. "I ain't ever heard of folks takin' off their clothes in conjunction with that game." As the doctor made a choking noise, Mal continued to look around the table. "Where's Cobb? Ain't like him to pass up a meal."

"He probably caught some food dirtside, sir," said Marnie. "Fresh beats frozen in my book any day – I grabbed myself a hot pasty with some stewed tomatoes, for sure. I'm only here at mess out of politeness …"

"Which ain't exactly Jayne's strong suit," Zoe finished. "Well, his loss. More protein to go around." She raised her eyebrows. "Lucky us, I suppose."

…

"Blitz!" shrieked Rose, and slammed her cards down onto the floor in front of her.

Samuel heaved a deep sigh as he turned to River. "She gets so very excited. She's _awful_ young, y'know."

"Blitz!" Rose continued. "Blitz! Did I win?!"

River laughed. "You _did_ win. Wouldn't have taught you this game if I knew you were going to be so much better than me at it!"

"Well, you two are both better than me." Samuel attempted to pout. "Womanly wiles or some such thing."

"If it's womanly wiles that win this game, why are you so durned bad at it?" Rose asked slyly.

Samuel gave an outraged shout and jumped across the pile of cards to launch a tickle counterattack against his sister. She shrieked again, with mock terror this time instead of glee, and fought back. River watched them rolling around with wide, unblinking eyes.

"Oh!" Rose snatched something out of Samuel's pocket and sprang away, clutching it in both hands. She jumped onto the bed to get away, but Samuel stayed put, grinning lazily. "An orange!" the girl gasped. "A real one! Samuel, is this for me?"

"Oh, I s'pose." He shrugged as if he couldn't possibly have cared less, but burst into a huge smile as his sister began happily tearing into the fruit. Realizing that River was looking at them with a strange expression, he turned pinkish again. "It's just that she's my little sister," he muttered. "It's nice to be able to do for her now and again, d'you know?"

"Family _is_ very important," River murmured. She turned aside and reached for the cup of apple juice she'd brought down from the galley – fresh from the planet, Marnie and Zoe must have paid a pretty penny for it. It tasted sweet and crisp, although it was room temperature by now; River closed her eyes and took a deeper drink …

But there was an aftertaste now – she must've gotten some of the dregs out of the bottom of the bottle? It was very bitter on her tongue. Pressing a hand against her forehead, she shot to her feet, and was startled to find herself swaying once she got there. She pitched forward, then back, and finally slid slowly to the ground between Samuel and Rose. They watched her collapse without expression and without intervention.

…

Zoe paced up and down the ship, unable to get to sleep. They called it morning sickness, but going planetside, with all the different clocks in different worlds, played merry hell with her internal clock, and she found herself turning green at all hours of the day and night._ You're going to have to tell the captain at some point before he starts wondering why your belly's poking out of all your old shirts …_

She found herself at the bottom of the stairway leading up to the bridge. Wash would be up even at this hour – he was up at all hours, after all.

Something stopped her before she set her foot on the first step – something slightly less than a noise, in the shadows behind her. She hesitated, but didn't turn around. This turned out to be a mistake.

A booted foot caught her at the base of the spine, sending her sprawling on the stairs. She grunted, equally as surprised as hurt. Before she could react again, the attacker had her up, and flung her against the door to Kaylee's room. The baby, she thought, fighting to stay awake, stay alert. Oh god, the baby …

"It's all locked down," someone said overhead.

"Not quite," a higher voice replied. "Hang on a minute." A small pair of hands grabbed Zoe by the shoulders and slammed her head against the wall again.

Zoe went to sleep.


	35. Broken page

V.

Wash heard the sound of someone's boots in the hallway below, and waited patiently for whoever it was to come up and damn well entertain him already. It was a quiet night and he couldn't exactly get up and go get a snack from the kitchen.

The bootsteps stopped, though, and were replaced by a great deal of crashing around. _Zoe! Is that you? Are you hurt?_ Wash resisted the urge to call out for her and see if she was all right. His biggest – hell, his _only_ advantage anymore lay in bad people tending not to suspect that the ship was flying itself.

There were voices down the stairway. They were too far away for Wash to pick them up clearly in the microphones Marnie had set up; he was certain, however, that they did not belong to anyone he was particularly friendly with. _Oh god, oh hell. Oh, Zoe. _

Fighting panic, he began switching down the navigation screens one at a time. Not for the first time, he wished he had some control over the amount of neurotransmitters in the bags of goo under the pilot's console.

"Hello Wash." That was Inara, sounding bright and cheery. "I'm ready to dock. Can you initiate the protocols?" Wash was very glad he'd muted the console speakers. He converted the input voice files into binary and flashed a text-only response with instructions back to her before he started running the shuttle-docking protocol subroutine.

…

"It's _busted_," Rose said disgustedly. She slammed the heel of her hand into the console for good measure. "The whole navigation system is down. This whole damn ship is too old, it's just falling apart!"

"Are you joking?" Samuel deposited River's limp body in the co-pilot's seat and joined Rose at the console. "This is a Firefly. They've got years and years of run in them." He jabbed at switches and buttons at random. "Or they should, if you take an ounce of care of them. Unbelievable."

"I mean, it looked old on the outside," Rose went on, "but most people are sensible enough to only take spaceworthy vehicles into _space_." She spat on the floor.

"This kind of vessel carries two shuttles," Samuel said thoughtfully. "Hopefully at least one of them is in better care than the ship itself is."

Rose nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem. We're still in-system, well within a shuttle's range."

"And the crew shouldn't be a problem," Samuel said. "The captain and mechanic are locked down in their quarters; the first mate, Doctor Tam, and the woman with the goggles are all out cold, and we left the large and marginally dangerous-looking one back planet-side."

"Good." Rose tilted her head at the younger Tam sibling. "Grab the cargo. The bosses are going to be waiting."

…

"Shuttle One is locked down," shouted Rose across the cargo bay. "I don't want to take the time to cut into one of these things if I don't have to."

"This one's open," Samuel called back over his shoulder. "And looks pretty posh to boot. Maybe the big boat is neglected because the good captain is focusing his efforts on the girl trade over here. Hurry up already."

Rose laughed and hurried over. Samuel already had the door open and she followed him into the shuttle.

Something crunched under her foot. There was a blindingly white flash; Rose screamed as it overwhelmed her defenses, and then again as she felt Samuel's pain too. _Feedback loop_, she thought in horror as the pain echoed back again and again with increasing strength. She could barely see the dark-haired woman who stood over her, and she couldn't hear the words the woman was saying. She did feel the long cool jab of the syringe in her wrist, though. The pain faded into darkness.

…

"Wash!" Inara called as she tightened the bindings on the Corgan siblings' limbs. "Everything is secure here. What's the situation?"

"I'm not getting responses from anybody," the pilot said. "The intercom's disabled for sure, although I think our young friends disabled some of the communications, um, manually. I'm pretty sure someone's at the bottom of the bridge stairs and they're not responding to my audio transmissions … er, to my voice. Guessing folks are locked down in their quarters, too, but I'm not hooked into the electronics that control that. Can you go check on everyone?"

The Companion hesitated. "I don't know. I don't want to leave the Corgans here alone, especially with River still unconscious—"

"She's fine," River said indistinctly, and then sat up on Inara's bed and coughed. "Wide awake and ready to go."

"Are you sure?" Inara wanted to know. "I don't want to leave you if—"

"No. You should go." River looked across the shuttle at the Corgans, who were stirring into wakefulness already, their eyes glittering with pain and anger. "Leave a weapon. Someone here can't be trusted."

Inara paused another moment. "All right," she said finally. She crossed the room in two long strides and pulled a silver pistol out of a drawer. River accepted it solemnly.

…

Mal clambered up the ladder nearly the moment Inara punched in the code to unlock his door. "What the gorram hell's going on? Where is everyone and why was I locked in my bunk? And are you all right?"

Inara raised an eyebrow. "That pair of charming youngsters you picked up turned out to be all out of charm. It looks like they were here after River – she's guarding them back in my shuttle now. The doctor is looking after Zoe now in the infirmary – they both got a knock on the head, and Zoe got tossed around a little to boot. Simon thinks she'll be fine, though he did want to examine her. Kaylee's on her way to the passenger dorms to check on Marnie and, I shudder to imagine, Jayne." She flashed him a dazzling smile. "And I'm quite all right. After all, today it was my turn to play the hero."

"And come to the rescue of the locked-up princess?" said Mal with a curtsy. Inara's cheeks colored slightly. "Well, I'm damn glad everything's all settled down. And without me even having to lift a—"

Two gunshots rang out in rapid succession. Mal and Inara spared each other a glance, and then took off down the hallway toward the Companion's shuttle.

Mal was the first one there. He burst through the door, to see River standing over two limp bodies with a smoking gun in her hand. "What the … ? Are you insane? We could've questioned them and found out—"

"We know what we need to know." River tossed the gun aside, onto Inara's floor. "Two loaded guns. Newer models – better equipped, better trained." She looked up at the captain. "They knew how to shield themselves. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Oh, I'm ashamed." She whirled away from Mal and began stalking up and down the length of the short room as Inara stepped in. "Someone still thinks I belong to them, and they want their property back. So careful, so cautious. Everything in place before they take a step. Now I've stepped on their toes … what do you suppose that means?"

"River," Inara whispered. "Did they have to … to die for it?"

The girl's dark stare chilled the Companion. "And what? We would let them go and trust them to keep a juicy secret? Or keep them here walking among us, and who wakes up with a knife in their back?" She stopped pacing and stood over the bodies. "They didn't want to go back, anyway. Victory is costly, but failure is worse. This _was_ kinder." Her hair was in her eyes as she glanced over her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll clean up the mess I make."

Inara and Mal were still standing speechless when Kaylee stumbled through the door, Marnie in tow. The scientist looked more than a little dazed, and she was pale under the blood trickling down from her hairline. "Captain," the mechanic said. Inara realized her voice was shaking, and her usually steady hands, too. "I been all over the ship. He ain't on board, cap'n. Jayne ain't anywhere on board."

Mal glanced sharply at the bodies, then said roughly. "The airlock. Has it been cycled lately?" Marnie swayed and leaned against the wall for whatever cold comfort it provided. Inara wanted to go to her, but didn't trust her knees not to buckle between here and there.

Kaylee shook her head slowly. "No, Mal. And we checked all the hidey-holes you coulda stashed a … that Jayne would fit into. He ain't anywhere." Inara felt her stomach drop as the mechanic burst into tears. "We left him, Mal. Right in the shadow of the SkyPlex. We left Jayne on _Ezra_."


	36. Part 6: Chapter 5

V.

Wash heard the sound of someone's boots in the hallway below, and waited patiently for whoever it was to come up and damn well entertain him already. It was a quiet night and he couldn't exactly get up and go get a snack from the kitchen.

The bootsteps stopped, though, and were replaced by a great deal of crashing around. _Zoe! Is that you? Are you hurt?_ Wash resisted the urge to call out for her and see if she was all right. His biggest – hell, his _only_ advantage anymore lay in bad people tending not to suspect that the ship was flying itself.

There were voices down the stairway. They were too far away for Wash to pick them up clearly in the microphones Marnie had set up; he was certain, however, that they did not belong to anyone he was particularly friendly with. _Oh god, oh hell. Oh, Zoe. _

Fighting panic, he began switching down the navigation screens one at a time. Not for the first time, he wished he had some control over the amount of neurotransmitters in the bags of goo under the pilot's console.

"Hello Wash." That was Inara, sounding bright and cheery. "I'm ready to dock. Can you initiate the protocols?" Wash was very glad he'd muted the console speakers. He converted the input voice files into binary and flashed a text-only response with instructions back to her before he started running the shuttle-docking protocol subroutine.

…

"It's _busted_," Rose said disgustedly. She slammed the heel of her hand into the console for good measure. "The whole navigation system is down. This whole damn ship is too old, it's just falling apart!"

"Are you joking?" Samuel deposited River's limp body in the co-pilot's seat and joined Rose at the console. "This is a Firefly. They've got years and years of run in them." He jabbed at switches and buttons at random. "Or they should, if you take an ounce of care of them. Unbelievable."

"I mean, it looked old on the outside," Rose went on, "but most people are sensible enough to only take spaceworthy vehicles into _space_." She spat on the floor.

"This kind of vessel carries two shuttles," Samuel said thoughtfully. "Hopefully at least one of them is in better care than the ship itself is."

Rose nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem. We're still in-system, well within a shuttle's range."

"And the crew shouldn't be a problem," Samuel said. "The captain and mechanic are locked down in their quarters; the first mate, Doctor Tam, and the woman with the goggles are all out cold, and we left the large and marginally dangerous-looking one back planet-side."

"Good." Rose tilted her head at the younger Tam sibling. "Grab the cargo. The bosses are going to be waiting."

…

"Shuttle One is locked down," shouted Rose across the cargo bay. "I don't want to take the time to cut into one of these things if I don't have to."

"This one's open," Samuel called back over his shoulder. "And looks pretty posh to boot. Maybe the big boat is neglected because the good captain is focusing his efforts on the girl trade over here. Hurry up already."

Rose laughed and hurried over. Samuel already had the door open and she followed him into the shuttle.

Something crunched under her foot. There was a blindingly white flash; Rose screamed as it overwhelmed her defenses, and then again as she felt Samuel's pain too. _Feedback loop_, she thought in horror as the pain echoed back again and again with increasing strength. She could barely see the dark-haired woman who stood over her, and she couldn't hear the words the woman was saying. She did feel the long cool jab of the syringe in her wrist, though. The pain faded into darkness.

…

"Wash!" Inara called as she tightened the bindings on the Corgan siblings' limbs. "Everything is secure here. What's the situation?"

"I'm not getting responses from anybody," the pilot said. "The intercom's disabled for sure, although I think our young friends disabled some of the communications, um, manually. I'm pretty sure someone's at the bottom of the bridge stairs and they're not responding to my audio transmissions … er, to my voice. Guessing folks are locked down in their quarters, too, but I'm not hooked into the electronics that control that. Can you go check on everyone?"

The Companion hesitated. "I don't know. I don't want to leave the Corgans here alone, especially with River still unconscious—"

"She's fine," River said indistinctly, and then sat up on Inara's bed and coughed. "Wide awake and ready to go."

"Are you sure?" Inara wanted to know. "I don't want to leave you if—"

"No. You should go." River looked across the shuttle at the Corgans, who were stirring into wakefulness already, their eyes glittering with pain and anger. "Leave a weapon. Someone here can't be trusted."

Inara paused another moment. "All right," she said finally. She crossed the room in two long strides and pulled a silver pistol out of a drawer. River accepted it solemnly.

…

Mal clambered up the ladder nearly the moment Inara punched in the code to unlock his door. "What the gorram hell's going on? Where is everyone and why was I locked in my bunk? And are you all right?"

Inara raised an eyebrow. "That pair of charming youngsters you picked up turned out to be all out of charm. It looks like they were here after River – she's guarding them back in my shuttle now. The doctor is looking after Zoe now in the infirmary – they both got a knock on the head, and Zoe got tossed around a little to boot. Simon thinks she'll be fine, though he did want to examine her. Kaylee's on her way to the passenger dorms to check on Marnie and, I shudder to imagine, Jayne." She flashed him a dazzling smile. "And I'm quite all right. After all, today it was my turn to play the hero."

"And come to the rescue of the locked-up princess?" said Mal with a curtsy. Inara's cheeks colored slightly. "Well, I'm damn glad everything's all settled down. And without me even having to lift a—"

Two gunshots rang out in rapid succession. Mal and Inara spared each other a glance, and then took off down the hallway toward the Companion's shuttle.

Mal was the first one there. He burst through the door, to see River standing over two limp bodies with a smoking gun in her hand. "What the … ? Are you insane? We could've questioned them and found out—"

"We know what we need to know." River tossed the gun aside, onto Inara's floor. "Two loaded guns. Newer models – better equipped, better trained." She looked up at the captain. "They knew how to shield themselves. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Oh, I'm ashamed." She whirled away from Mal and began stalking up and down the length of the short room as Inara stepped in. "Someone still thinks I belong to them, and they want their property back. So careful, so cautious. Everything in place before they take a step. Now I've stepped on their toes … what do you suppose that means?"

"River," Inara whispered. "Did they have to … to die for it?"

The girl's dark stare chilled the Companion. "And what? We would let them go and trust them to keep a juicy secret? Or keep them here walking among us, and who wakes up with a knife in their back?" She stopped pacing and stood over the bodies. "They didn't want to go back, anyway. Victory is costly, but failure is worse. This _was_ kinder." Her hair was in her eyes as she glanced over her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll clean up the mess I make."

Inara and Mal were still standing speechless when Kaylee stumbled through the door, Marnie in tow. The scientist looked more than a little dazed, and she was pale under the blood trickling down from her hairline. "Captain," the mechanic said. Inara realized her voice was shaking, and her usually steady hands, too. "I been all over the ship. He ain't on board, cap'n. Jayne ain't anywhere on board."

Mal glanced sharply at the bodies, then said roughly. "The airlock. Has it been cycled lately?" Marnie swayed and leaned against the wall for whatever cold comfort it provided. Inara wanted to go to her, but didn't trust her knees not to buckle between here and there.

Kaylee shook her head slowly. "No, Mal. And we checked all the hidey-holes you coulda stashed a … that Jayne would fit into. He ain't anywhere." Inara felt her stomach drop as the mechanic burst into tears. "We left him, Mal. Right in the shadow of the SkyPlex. We left Jayne on _Ezra_."


	37. Bridge 6

_Bridge_

_Jayne watched; he couldn't help it. They wouldn't let him go to sleep. Could he have slept all chained up by his hands like this anyway? Seemed mighty unlikely._

_The old man drew another lemon drop out of the paper bag and put it delicately into his mouth. "Delicious!" Niska said, his accent making the word more musical than it deserved to be. "My favorite. How thoughtful of you to bring them."_

_Jayne rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, pretending that the old bastard was someone else: a distant cousin, a disgruntled customer. The father of some girl he'd rolled. Badger, even. Someone else, anyone else. Pa'd never liked it much when he'd been off in a daydream; Pa didn't hold with games of the imagination, said they weakened the mind._

_Pa, of course, had never been held hostage by a torturer._

"_How sad for you, really," Niska continued, as he paced slowly across the room, "that your … friends … should not even notice that they had left you behind! A strange concept of friendship indeed."_

"_Probably got real busy makin' deals and doin' business with lots of folks who ain't you," Jayne muttered._

_Niska chuckled. "Such bravery!" He leaned in close, although this only got him about as high as Jayne's navel. "This is where I offer you a deal, yes? Betray your friends to me and I reward you with riches, power, and of course your life?"_

_Jayne licked his lips. He could sense that there was really no right answer here, and so he opted not to give one. Clearly this dissatisfied Niska, who turned away and placed his hands behind his back. "No … then again, I think not. One does not make deals with deal-breakers."_

"_They'll come after me," Jayne threw at him. "It ain't like you think. They'll be here stormin' the gates. Just as before."_

"_You think so?" Niska pursed his lips and tilted his head to one side. "Well, perhaps, perhaps. And then again, perhaps we will be better prepared this time. A dozen men with automatic weapons stationed at the gate at all times, I think, should do nicely." He nodded to one of the largish men standing behind him, who lumbered out the door. "In the meantime … Nicolai, kindly fetch me the pliers."_


	38. Part 7: Chapter 1

**Lost and Found**

I.

_Kaylee paused in the doorway of the infirmary, surprised at what she saw before her. "Simon! What's wrong with Jayne?"_

_The big man moaned and writhed on the examination table. "Kaylee … I'm dyin' …"_

"_Oh, Jayne!" She clasped his clammy hand, staring up at Simon. "Aren't you going to do something?"_

_Simon sighed as he looked up from organizing one of his cabinets of medication. "For heaven's sake. There's nothing wrong with the man. He just discovered that the water aboard Serenity is all reconstituted."_

"_Oh, Jayne," Kaylee said in an entirely different tone. She dropped his hand. "Where did you think all that water came from, anyhow? There is a vacuum outside, in case you hadn't noticed."_

"_All I'm sayin' is, a man shouldn't have to drink his own piss," Jayne whined. "Tain't natural."_

"_We live in a flying piece of metal with artificial gravity," Simon pointed out. "There's not much 'natural' about any of it."_

"_Yeah," Jayne grunted, and pulled the blanket over his head. "But that doesn't mean I gotta be happy about it."_

Kaylee snapped back to herself, sitting at the table in the galley with her hand twisted together in her lap. This was an important enough meeting, and it deserved her full attention.

"I don't see why we can't just pay the man, like y'all did last time!" Marnie shouted. "We all got money saved up – we just have to quit dilly-dallying before it's too late!"

"It ain't enough," Zoe said firmly, as she held a bag of ice against the back of her head. "It's just about the same amount as we had with Wash and Mal, and it only paid for one of them. And the size of Jayne, and the way Niska thinks … I ain't keen on speculating what bits we'd have to leave behind." She glanced away, looking distressed, as Marnie collapsed into a chair.

"Do we put on a full-out attack again, then?" Simon asked. "Go in guns blazing? Will that work?"

Mal shook his head slowly, picking a piece of lacquer off of the table. "He'll be expecting something of the sort. This time there'll be hired guns waiting for us. Might've had time to set up better sensor equipments in the meantime, too. Or even missile defenses."

"We can't go in there," Wash said. His voice sounded thick, as if with fear. Maybe the speakers were acting up. "I got too much to risk, Mal. We can't just go sailing in there again."

"We've got to do something," Kaylee said weakly. "We _got_ to. Captain? We're going to do something, ain't we?"

"Just let him think for a moment," Inara suggested, drawing her shawl around her shoulders. "We'll figure something out mei-mei. We just need to think."

From where she had been huddling unattended in the corner, River walked across the room. She stopped in front of Mal with her arms folded. "You know what you have to do," she said coldly. "Only one can go. You know the way. You know who to send." She turned on one heel and left the room.

Silence took over. Kaylee held her breath, wondering what the exchange had meant, and if it actually meant something to Mal.

The captain sat still for another moment. Then he looked up from the table and across the room to Marnie. "I think I do know who to send. It ain't gonna be any kind of easy, though. And more dangerous than bursting in with all cannons firing."

"Mal!" Inara gaped at him. "I don't know who's making less sense, you or River! Look at the state she's in – you want to send _Marnie_?"

Mal exhaled slowly, and looked at the scientist, who sat staring at her clenched hands. "That ain't exactly what I had in mind, no."


	39. Part 7: Chapter 2

II.

"I just don't get how they think this'll work," Kaylee said, pacing back and forth along the catwalk outside of Inara's shuttle. "And all this business about Marnie – why didn't the captain ever mention it 'til now?"

From her perch on the railing, River sighed. "He keeps the gun in the holster, he hides the knife behind his back," she replied irritably. "Only sensible thing to do."

"How long do you think it's going to take to get her ready? Before she has to go? _Qin ai de shen_, she must be so nervous … no, _I'm_ so nervous. She must be petrified."

"Not long now," River muttered, putting her arms around herself.

Kaylee stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. "I know it all makes sense if you add it all up nice and logic-y. But … but they were _lovers_! I thought she cared about him – in a weird Marnie kind of way, but there it was." Her voice cracked. "And now she's going to – what? Just walk in there and … I can't even imagine. River, she cared about him."

River stared into the space over the mechanic's head. "And that's why she'll do this."

The door to Inara's shuttle opened, and Mal stepped out. "Kaylee, is the—" He stopped and looked down. "Ah. Kaylee, are you done modifying t'other shuttle? You ain't got time to be taking a rest otherwise."

"It's all set." She climbed to her feet, scrubbing her sleeve across her eyes. The captain put an arm around her shoulders. "I fixed the signal so the shuttle says it came off'f an old Mermaid-class freighter. Ain't no way to pin it to a Firefly – let alone us – no more." She leaned against the captain's shoulder. "Do you really think this is gonna work, cap'n?"

"I think it surely can work," he began.

"All the pieces are in place," River cut in. "But there are _so many_ pieces. Are you sure none will slide around during transport?"

He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye as he finished. "But it ain't up to me anymore. We'll see how she does."

"Can I see her before she goes?" Kaylee pleaded. "Wish her l-luck … I don't know if that's the right thing to be wishing. Does that sound okay?"

"I'm sure it would work mighty fine," Mal said, drawing Kaylee forward, "but she ain't in a real chatty mood right now, is my thought."

"If she closes her eyes, you can't see her," sing-songed River, who slid down from her perch and followed close behind them. "If she puts her hands over her ears, you go deaf …"

…

The shuttle docked smoothly at the space station, all authorization requested and granted. 'Waves flew back and forth like startled birds; permission to come aboard was moved up in the queue. This was a guest the boss himself would certainly want to meet.

She strode aboard, the heels of her black boots striking the decking loudly. The small briefcase she carried slapped her leg in an accompanying rhythm. This was a woman that men got out of the way for – especially the sort of men who tended to find careers as lackeys and underlings appealing. From behind, they nervously admired her slender frame, her short and neatly coiffed red hair. Her white lab coat was clean, but not meticulously so – one got the feeling that it had been thoroughly used in the past.

An assistant led her into the central office and opened the hidden door to the chamber behind. She stepped inside the chamber, past the awkward bow he sketched out, and smiled at the little old man waiting there. "Mr. Niska," she said warmly. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I trust my credentials were … acceptable?"

"More than acceptable," he said, and offered her a hand that she readily accepted. "Please do come in, my dear. It is not often that we are graced with a scientist of such high caliber and standing. You have done many impressive things during your service to the Alliance, I think?"

She shrugged modestly as she laid her briefcase upon a convenient tabletop. "They did give me a chance to accomplish a number of worthwhile things."

"Indeed?" Niska raised his eyebrows. "And yet I understand you are working independently now."

"I got outsourced." Shrugging, she unzipped her case and began laying out some metal instruments. "Blue Sun – no doubt you've heard of them. They do good work, of course, don't mistake me! But what happens to the independent pain researcher then, I ask you? These big franchise science operations are the problem with—" She looked abashed. "I apologize; I don't mean to bore you. I don't mean to dominate the conversation by talking shop."

Niska smiled indulgently. "Of course, of course. You would prefer, I think, to get to the matter at hand?"

"I would prefer it very much." She selected one gleaming metal instrument, with some resemblance to a nutcracker. "This is the subject, then?" She gestured to the big man hanging from the ceiling by his wrists.

Niska nodded. "One Jayne Cobb. He has the unfortunate habit of running with a bad group – one which likes to cross my path. We have gotten a bit of a start already – some unfortunate timing for you! But don't worry, there will be others. There always are. And there is plenty of work left to do here, as you can see."

"I do see," she said, moving over to stand in front of Cobb. She tilted her head to one side and adjusted her horn-rimmed glasses. "I do indeed. Masterful work so far."

The big man's head listed slightly; it moved from side to side like he was trying to clear it. He cracked open one swollen eye and licked his lips. "Marnie?" he asked hoarsely.

" 'Marnie'?" repeated Charlotte Hatcher with interest. She glanced at Niska. "Who is this woman – a wife, a sister?" The old man shrugged; Hatcher turned back to the subject with her hands on her hips and a slow grin crossing her face. "I wonder if I look like her … and how we can use this."


	40. Part 7: Chapter 3

III.

"May I join you?" Inara didn't wait for a response before slipping into the seat next to Mal on the couch in the common area. She tucked her long legs up under her gown, and gave the captain a sad smile. "I've made some tea – would you care for some?"

"Not in a tea sort of mood just now," he grunted, but slid over to make more room on the couch for her.

They sat in uneasy silence for a moment. "Do you think she's there yet?" Inara ventured first. "Do you think everything's going according to plan?"

"Well, we ain't heard Niska calling in to gloat yet," Mal said. "That, or Wash ain't keen on bringing it to our attention. He don't like seein' Kaylee cry, after all."

Inara shifted slightly in her seat. "Mal …"

He raised a hand. "Sorry. Don't mean to get so glib – just a reflex, I s'pose." He sighed. "I'm hopin' all is going well. As well as can be, that is. Marnie – _Charlotte_ – ain't on any of the security vids from when we stormed the joint last time, and she's got the bona fide Alliance papers she needs."

"It's not her I'm worried about," said the Companion, twisting the teacup around in its saucer. "Jayne isn't in on the plan. What if he says something – gives away some sign?"

…

"Marnie," Jayne groaned, and twisted weakly in his chains. "Knew it was you all along. I knew it. Marnie. Are we – are we leavin' soon?"

"Shhh." She leaned down, bringing her face close to his, and wiped the blood from his mouth with a wet cloth. "It's all right now – I'm here. Don't worry."

"We gotta go," he said, and then more urgently. "We gotta get out of here – before they get back …"

"Don't worry, we have plenty of time," she reassured him. "Worlds of time. Just take it easy, love – you're in no kind of shape to be in a rush." Her hand was cool on the side of his face. "We'll take care of you. Just don't worry yourself, all right?"

Her lips brushed against his, gently – gently enough not to crush his split lip, or the bottom tooth that felt like it might be working itself loose. Gently enough that it was the first thing that had felt good for quite some time now. _If she thinks it's safe … just for a moment, then_, Jayne thought, and let his mind drift away from escape.

Someone snickered. Jayne jumped, tearing his mouth free from Marnie's. "Get me out!" he pleaded. "We've gotta go – we can take 'em together if we—oh."

He and Marnie both looked down at the spike that protruded from the area over Jayne's left hip. "Oh," he said again, as the blood started to flow.

Niska stepped down from the staircase, flanked by two of his minions, as he clapped delicately. "Beautiful work, my dear. I could not have done it better myself." He chuckled. "Obviously. I doubt I bear quite as much resemblance to this woman Marnie."

"Not quite." Charlotte straightened and stretched out her back. "It's my particular gift, I suppose. Would you care to do the honors?" She held out a second spike to him.

"Oh, I would not." The old man steepled his hands and smiled benevolently at her. "Not with you doing so well."

"You're too—" She stabbed down with the other spike and twisted. Jayne cried out. "—kind."


	41. Part 7: Chapter 4

IV.

"I worry a lot these days, y'know," Wash confided. "It's a hobby. Got a lot of down time for hobbies anymore, and seeing as I lack the necessary equipment to take up knitting …"

"Worrying don't ever solve a thing." Zoe leaned back in the co-pilot's seat, her hand on her belly. "'Sides, I'm fairly sure that as second-in-command, I'm the one in charge of any and all worry-related duties."

"Didn't mean to step on your turf. In the very highly metaphorical sense, of course." He sighed. "I don't know which is worse – the worry, or the parts where I start thinking about how much I just want to get away and protect what we still got."

"What we still got," she echoed. "What you and I still got, is what you mean?" Wash didn't respond. "You and me and baby makes three?" Her fingers drifted along the edge of the pilot's console.

"Simon said everything's fine, right? Maybe you should get—"

"The baby's fine, sweetheart." She shook her head. "Everything checked out just right. And I don't much care to have Simon clucking over me for no good reason."

"We're gonna have to get around to mentioning this to the captain some time soon, I suppose. Before he starts wondering why your clothes ain't fitting right. Not that he should be looking at how your clothes fit. He isn't, is he?"

"Now don't quite seem like the ideal time to be talking about bringing new babies into this particular world, dear. Though it might at least distract Kaylee for a spell."

"Yeah," Wash retorted, "but with delight or with sheer terror?"

…

"Ugh." Gingerly, Charlotte peeled off her lab coat, which was looking significantly less pristine by this point. "This is really starting to smell pretty awful." She held it out on one finger to the nearer of Niska's two lurking underlings. "Good lord. Is there a laundry facility here? Something? Take this down there and see if you can't find me a fresh one." The man glanced at Niska, got a nod, and trotted away with the thoroughly soiled garment.

Charlotte put her hands on her hips and grinned at Niska. "You have them trained well. Like Doberman pinschers with opposable thumbs. Do you think he'll be long? I don't want to get any precious bodily fluids on my sweater."

"It will be but a few minutes," he replied graciously. "May I offer you something to eat or drink in the meantime? You have been hard at work for quite a while now, and I would not like for you to feel as if you cannot take a break. We mustn't have you getting light-headed, now."

"I could handle a snack, I think – I've sure worked up an appetite." She slapped the blade of a screwdriver on the flat of her palm. "What's your specialty here? Or if you're short on specialties, a peanut butter sandwich sounds fine."

Niska gestured to the second lackey, and watched him as he trotted up the stairs. "We have a most talented chef, from Greenleaf. She has quite a way with spiedini and—"

He stopped mid-sentence and dropped to the floor. Charlotte stepped back away from the limp body and shook loose the chains wrapped around her right hand. "Ow," she muttered, and kicked Niska in the back. "Just for good measure."

She turned around. Jayne wasn't paying any attention; she couldn't tell if he was even conscious. For a moment she stared at the air somewhere over his head. Then she was crossing the room in long strides, and unfastening his chains. "Oh dear," she said, "your wrists are all chafed …"

Jayne stirred, frowning up in the general direction of her face. "What kind o' …" He coughed and spat blood at her. "… nasty tricks y'got planned this time?"

"No time for tricks just now." She ignored the red gob dripping down the front of her shirt, and dragged his arm across her shoulders – Jayne groaned, but she kept pulling. "Come on, we have to move fast. I know it hurts, but if we just hurry—"

"Gorram straight it hurts. An' whose fault is that?" He yanked his arm away from her as soon as his feet touched the ground, and promptly pitched forward onto the decking.

Again she seized his arm and pulled him up, staggering under his much greater bulk. "Mine. It's my fault. Do you think I could forget?" Together they stumbled across the floor, avoiding Niska's comatose form. "How else do you think I could get in here? Not with a weapon and not with cash. They had to trust me or I never would have had a moment alone with you."

Jayne grunted. "We've had … better moments alone, I got to say."

The guards in the corridor outside were out cold. "Inara gave me a smoke bomb to plant here," Charlotte informed Jayne. "Apparently it worked. In spades." Jayne didn't respond, but lurched sideways into her, nearly running her into the wall. "Oof!" She hoisted his arm farther across her neck, feeling the strain in her knees as she supported more of his weight. "Don't worry. You've lost a lot of blood, but once we get you into the shuttle, you can lie down and we'll have a look at you. You'll be fine as soon as Simon gets his hands on you." Again there was no answer from Jayne – had the speech been meant for him or for her? – but he kept putting one boot in front of the other.

They had no undue interruptions between Niska's office and the shuttle airlock. Charlotte dropped Jayne into a seat and settled herself at the helm. "And they're off," she murmured, as the SkyPlex shrank into the distance behind them. "No missile lock – I guess no one's noticed we've wandered off yet."

"'s'real this time – right?" Jayne slurred. "Knew it was you all along." His head pitched to the side with the motion of the shuttle. "You're t'only one who can hurt me that bad. Bitch."

"Everybody needs a talent." Charlotte set the shuttle's autopilot to home in on Serenity, and stood up. "Let's have a look at you then. I'd be awfully embarrassed to have rescued you only to let you bleed out on me here."

Jayne caught her sleeve as she reached for his shirt. "Am glad y'came for me," he said seriously. "Marnie."

Marnie yanked her hand free as she jumped back. Dropping to both knees in the middle of the shuttle, she threw up noisily – an empty stomach's worth of bile. "Well, I ain't glad," she said raggedly, and wiped her mouth on her shirt. "Not that it was me as had to come, I mean. I ain't glad at all."

"Oh, for chrissake," Jayne said irritably. "Stop feelin' sorry for yourself an' feel sorry for _me_, gorram it. You gonna patch me up or what?"


	42. Part 7: Chapter 5

V.

"How's he doin', Doc?" Mal asked. _Looks a right mess to me._

"The damage isn't too severe," Simon said, pulling a length of gauze out of a drawer. "The blood loss is fairly significant, but she managed to avoid hitting any major vessels. In fact …" He paused as he began applying the gauze to the oozing cuts on Jayne's chest. "In fact this is a much easier case to deal with than the last time. I don't even have any inconvenient detached body parts to put back together."

Jayne's eyes darted between their faces. "Oh god, the doc's crackin' jokes. I'm dyin', ain't I? Tell me honest, Mal!"

Mal shook his head. "Oh, no. You ain't gonna do any such lazy thing as dying on me. I'm pretty sure I've got you contracted for the next six months at least." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Although I bet you just stash your pay under your mattress or something. What the hell, doc, might as well just let him pass." Jayne's eyes got very wide.

"Well, I think at this point I'd have to be actively remiss in my doctorly duties in order for that to happen." Simon stepped back from the table and peeled off his gloves. "You'll mend fine, Jayne. You'll just be sore and cranky for a while. Crankier than usual, that is."

Kaylee poked her head through the infirmary door. "Is all the life-savin' done? Can I come in and get in the way now?"

"Surely looks that way." Mal moved out of her path as she hurried in to take Jayne's hand. "The good doctor's tender ministrations have saved the day once again."

"I'm _the day_?" gasped Jayne, sounding awed.

"And that will be the pain medications kicking in," said Simon. He paused for a moment, looking at Kaylee, but her attention was elsewhere. "I … ah, I'm going to start cleaning up in here, then. Don't mind me."

"Won't," said Mal cheerfully. He stepped up beside Kaylee. "So where'd Marnie get on to? Don't she want to be here?"

The mechanic glanced at Jayne, then up at her captain. "She ran off pretty fast," she said slowly. "And I ain't surprised. After all that's happened – that she had to do – she'll probably want some time to herself for a while – y'know?"

…

Marnie slammed River up against the wall of her bedroom. "You _knew_!" she shouted. "You knew all along! You piece of—"

The girl's head drooped to one side. "I know a lot of things," she said coldly. "I know a dead man's secrets. I know what grows in the warm and the dark here."

"TalkSense." Marnie shook the other woman harder. "Why can't you ever just _talk sense_?"

River swung her gaze back to center, meeting the scientist's eyes. "I know that great love makes people into heroes. I know that small love – or lust – makes people into cowards." Her lips drew back, in something like a smile. "I know you wouldn't have been able to do as you did if he'd looked at you and called you pet, or darling, or bright eyes."

"So you played up on my fears," Marnie said, her fists clenching tighter on River's blouse, "and talked me into leaving him – so I'd have time to finish the job you needed me to do, so I wouldn't be compromised in case something happened? Gorram it – you stupid little girl! You can't do things like this – social engineering, making people's lives the way you think they're supposed to be …"

"Why not?" River asked sweetly. "It's what you used to do – and enjoy. Your life's work – yours and your friends and colleagues. The G-23 Paxilon hydrochlorate. Wasn't it?"

Marnie's mouth dropped open, her grip loosening slightly. In that instant, River brought her knee up between them and kicked her away, without appearing to exert any real effort. "We're done," she said, looking at the wall instead of at the other woman. "Get out. Don't return."


	43. Bridge 7

_Bridge_

_Feeling warm, and a least a little drowsy, Jayne lay in his bunk and tried to sleep. It seemed like it should have been fairly easy, especially with the part about feeling drowsy. At least he'd come down from the painkiller buzz a little – he faintly recalled hallucinating Mal singing him one of Ma Cobb's favorite cradle songs, and that had been powerfully unsettling._

_There was a sound at the door above – not quite a knock, not quite a scratch. "C'mon in," he called, startled by how hoarse his voice sounded._

_The door cracked open, and Marnie's boots appeared in the rectangle of light overhead. She scuttled halfway down the ladder, then turned over her shoulder to stare at the nothing to the left of Jayne's head. ""I can go, if that's what you'd rather," she said politely. "Just figured on seeing how you were before I hit the proverbial hay."_

"_Think you'll sleep pretty sound tonight, do you?" He raised himself up onto his elbows as she started to flee back up the ladder. "Hang on a gorram minute. Get on down here and close the damn door while you're at it. I don't need the whole ship to hear me bein' nice to you."_

_She dropped to the decking and leaned back against the wall. "I came to apologize," she told her boots. "For having to do what I did. I'm a certified brain, and I couldn't think of one better idea. I wish to god someone else could have done … something." She wiped her nose and muttered, "'S'good to have you back, though."_

"_I was thinkin' kinda the same thing," he said. "Come here, will ya?"_

_After eying him warily for a moment, she kicked off her boots and squirmed onto the bunk in the narrow space between him and the wall. "This isn't what it looks like," she said gruffly, drawing her arms up against her own chest. "I ain't _cuddling_ or _snuggling_ or anything of that nature, mind you."_

_With his good arm, Jayne rolled her out of her nook and on top of him. Instantly she went stiff as a board. "I'm not made o' glass, you _péng song bèn dàn_. And anyway you don't weight more'n a good pair of boots would."_

_She didn't hesitate this time, and relaxed, letting her face drop against Jayne's shoulder. "I'm going to leave if you start snoring, y'know."_

_He juggled her weight to a more comfortable position. "Well, first off, you take that ice pick you call a chin out of my neck. After that, you can start negotiatin' terms."_


	44. Part 8: Chapter 1

Part 8: Allegiance

**Part 8: Allegiance**

I.

"Powerfully unsettling," Mal said, and shook his head. "There are some things a man simply was not meant to see."

"Why, captain." Inara stepped up beside him in the doorway to the galley, her cup of tea perfectly balanced in one hand. "I can't begin to imagine what kind of sight would disturb your tender – oh."

Together they stared at the bizarre domestic scene taking place in the ship's kitchen. Marnie was humming a happy little space chanty and spooning something that smelled of cinnamon and vanilla from a pan on the range into a bowl. She waltzed over to the kitchen table and placed the bowl in front of Jayne and watched appreciatively as he dug into it with gusto. "She's _doting_, isn't it?" Mal accused. "I know doting when I see it."

"Isn't it just the sweetest?" Kaylee beamed as she poured herself another cup of tea. "They been like this all morning."

"With no foreseeable end in sight," said Simon grimly. He was seated as far away from the happy pair as possible.

Zoe smirked at the doctor as she raided what was left in the pan Marnie had left on the stovetop. (Mal made a mental note to tell her to cut back on the grazing – she was starting to get a belly on her, and before long she was going to have a rough time squeezing into her body armor. "Let 'em have their fun," the first mate said, and fished a spoon out of an open drawer. "We all know they'll be back at each other soon enough."

"Back _on_ each other, I think you mean," said Marnie with an evil grin.

Simon buried his face in his hands. "I wonder," he said. "Is the universe really ready for half-human, half-ape offspring?"

"Babies!" Kaylee's hands flew to her face. "How shiny would that be!"

"Oof." Mal rubbed his temples. "Now there is something I don't much care to imagine."

"Hey, sweetface. How's about joining me up on the bridge – breakfast for just two?" Wash's voice cut through the chatter, making Mal jump; sometimes he forgot that the pilot might be listening, and he felt guilty for that.

"Sounds all right to me." Zoe balanced two full bowls and a glass of juice between her two hands. "Be up in two shakes." With a tight smile, she squeezed between the captain and the companion.

"Reproduction ain't anything I'm too keen on at the moment, either." Marnie crossed her arms. "I got places to go, people to see …"

Kaylee tittered. "That, and I'd have to rig you up some kind o' system of pulleys and weights for you to be able to tote around a baby-belly, you old beanpole."

"They make it look so easy, don't they?" Inara's soft voice took Mal's attention away from the unfolding scene. "It's not fair."

"Sorry?" the captain asked, puzzled.

The companion gestured at the table. "These two. Zoe and Wash. They all seem so effortless – to turn around after torturing, and being tortured, and then be able to comfort each other? To have your husband taken away and then returned to you in a machine, and go back to loving one other as if nothing were different?" She smiled. "For them it's like breathing, or needing water." She tilted her head to the side, as she watched Marnie begin to scold Jayne for not finishing his breakfast. "'As easy as falling off a cliff' might also be a useful metaphor. You and I, though … we do always complicate things, don't we?"

Her warm, dark eyes met the captain's. As he fumbled for a response – witty? Gentle? Coherent would be nice – Wash's voice rang out overhead. "Captain! Put a scratch on that quiet breakfast for two; there's a wave for you up here."

Mal turned to make his excuses, but Inara had already moved away into the galley, slipping into the seat next to Simon and making polite conversation. "Yeah. Um. Well," the captain said, as suavely as possible (which was not very), and beat a retreat.

Zoe was waiting in the co-pilot's seat when he got to the bridge. "Pull up a chair, Captain," she said, her expression unreadable. "Got an old friend on the line."

Mal turned to the viewscreen, and fought to keep his expression just as implacable as his first mates. "Well goodness me. It has been a powerful long time, hasn't it? I been meaning to write, but, well, you know how these things get. How've you been?"

"Been better." Sheriff Bourne leaned toward the camera. "Hopefully about to get better. I've got a job for you, Reynolds. And no, that's _not_ a question."


	45. Part 8: Chapter 2

Part 8: Allegiance

II.

"Sheriff." Mal settled into the open seat. "Well. Always nice to deal with old friends, isn't it?"

"Friends?" Bourne shrugged. "Not sure we're quite close enough to be called friends just yet. But I heard you were in the neighborhood hereabouts." His grin was slow, but certain. "And then I also heard the Skyplex was in a certain state of chaos, which don't ever put me in a bad mood. You have something to do with that, Reynolds?"

Now it was the captain's turn to shrug. "Just don't take kindly to havin' my people kidnapped off the street and cut on, is all. Something of a personality quirk of mine."

"Yeah, well. I've got a job for you, and I can pay you. I can pay you well, in sheer point of fact." He pursed his lips. "Five hundred, in good hard coin."

"I'm a little too old and ornery to agree to any kind of a deal before I know both sides of it," Mal pointed out.

"A little?" Zoe murmured.

"Fair enough, captain," said Bourne. "I got a big load of medicines meant for a settlement way up in hill country, and I need help to get it there. 'Help' in the sense of 'hired muscle and heavy weaponry', that is."

Mal scratched his head. "Not sure that's the best work for us right now, sheriff. Our personal piece of hired muscle ain't doing much in the way of heavy lifting at the moment, and half the rest of my crew is either gun-shy or …" He grimaced. "Or the thought of them holding a gun makes _me_ shy. 'Sides, you're the local guvmint. Why don't you get the regional bigwigs to send you some warm bodies?"

The sheriff's smile had long since disappeared. "You're not real keen on the news bulletins these days, are you?" He exhaled noisily. "Come on down here and I'll give you a look around and we'll see what you say then. Like I said, captain – this isn't a request. I'm not sending you an engraved invitation with an RSVP on it tied up with a ribbon. I'm telling you straight: you're gonna take a good-paying job, or I'm gonna call up those bigwigs and tell 'em your whereabouts." He tapped the camera. "I hope you ain't too old and ornery to get that through your skull."

The police compound was quiet, eerily so. There was plenty of room for Serenity to set down in the dusty brown yard surrounded by chain link fence. Mal strode out of the ship with River and Zoe close behind, flanking him like his own personal matched pair of Amazon bodyguards.

No one stopped them at the front door to ask who they were or what their business was, nor was anyone awaiting them in the grim fluorescent lights of the entry hallway. When Mal and Zoe paused to share a concerned frown, River made an irritated noise. "He said to take the second left, first door on the right," she said, and pushed past them.

The indicated room contained about half a dozen desks – all but one dusty and bare. Behind the one clean, occupied desk was Sheriff Bourne himself. "Captain," he said, looking up from his grimy monitor screen as they entered. "Ladies. Help yourself to a seat. Doesn't much matter where." He gave them a scrutinizing look as they brushed chairs clean and sat down. "Not many of you – not as many as I was hoping for, anyhow."

"Like I already said." Mal leaned back in his chair and put his feet up one of the unused desks. "Niska made sure that our gun hand's gun hand ain't pulling a trigger any time soon. And our resident doctor and mechanic and scientist aren't much with the shooting and the blowin' things up."

The sheriff nodded. "_Jen dao mai. _You three will have to do, then." He jabbed a thumb at River. "I mean, that's _her_, right?"

"It's her," River said, and turned her attention back to tracing differential equations in the dust. "The killing machine disguised as a pretty girl." She didn't look up as Bourne shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Or a maiming machine, or only a stopping-people machine. Very customizable."

"And she's one of those I do let have a gun!" Mal said. "Don't that thought just warm the very cockles of your heart?"

"Mmph," said the sheriff, and got to his feet. "Long as she's handy with that gun, my heart can put on a sweater. You ready to get started?"

The sheriff led them out down a different hallway and out a back door into the compound's motor pool. He pointed at a truck with armored sides, a size or two bigger than the mule, with a large trailer latched onto the back of it. "That's your ride." His hand swung toward the trailer. "And that's the payload. Fifteen crates of Pasceline-D. Do _not_ lose it."

"Truckloads of drugs don't tend to wander off on their own," Zoe said loudly. "I can't help but wonder if there's not someone out there who'd be trying to _help_ us lose them?"

"No. No way." Mal shook his head and took a long step backward. "We ain't getting between Niska and any shinies he desires right now – we need time an' space to lick our wounds before startin' _that_ fight afresh."

"Not Niska," said River. She was already atop the armored vehicle with a gun in her hand. "Not so simple as that. Never is."

The sheriff's face was grim. "Captain, are you blind? You think I sit out here in this compound with two lonely deputies – for my health? Where do you think my boys are at?" He settled onto a bench with a sigh, resignation replacing anger. "Like it or not – _notice_ it or not – you changed things, captain, when you went to Miranda."

"What're you saying?"

Bourne gestured expansively. "Oh, sure, the Core planets are still in order, as pretty as you please. Not enough Independents living thereabouts to make a difference either way. But out here on the Rim, things are getting messy. You shook things up, Reynolds, and people are gorram angry at what fell out. Most of my deputies got called down into the capital, trying to keep some kind of sanity – I got no one to hold things down out here in the hills except me and two deputies old enough to be my father, and bandits breathin' down my neck when I'm trying to hand out Pasceline to those that need it." He laughed bitterly. "I got to hire crooks to do proper police work."

"We're not crooks – just crooked." Mal folded his arms. "And we like to take our money home at the end of the day. How're you gonna manage to pay us if you can't even staff yourself properly?"

"Oh, the Alliance bigwigs got plenty of cash to send me. They'll spend now and bother about the runaway inflation later." Bourne pulled a heavy bag out of his pocket and tossed it to Zoe. "Half now," he told her. "The rest when it's done. It's a hard, long trip up into the hills, and I got to make sure you have incentive to get the job done."

Holding the bag, Zoe looked up at River. The girl nodded. "The real thing, and more where it came from." She beckoned with her free hand. "Hurry up and let's play heroes."


	46. Part 8: Chapter 3

V

A/N: is anyone still reading and/or caring about whether this gets updated? Just curious, since I don't have much time for it these days and it's getting to be a lot of work for not knowing if anyone still out there is interested. :(

III.

The map Bourne gave them led them up into sandy brown foothills. The dust thrown up by the truck was chokingly thick; River found a stash of old scarves under one of the seats and handed them out. Mal tied the cloth around his nose and mouth and enjoyed a full, deep breath that smelled only slightly of someone else's sweat.

"Going to go sit up top with the binocs – the better to see them with," River announced abruptly, and climbed over the bar enclosing the back of the truck's cab.

Mal looked over his shoulder to see her take a perch on one of the benches along the sides of the truckbed, her gun against her shoulder. _The better to shoot them with_, he thought. _Little Red Riding Hood you ain't_. "Think she's all right back there?" he asked.

Zoe shrugged. "Better her than you. At least the girl's got a sense of balance." She glanced at River in her rearview mirror. "'Sides, it's her way."

"Her way of looking all crazy-like?"

"Her way of taking care of us." Zoe's eyes darted to Mal's face, then back to the narrow road ahead. "Fine situation to wind up in. You, a little slip of a thing, and a lady with a baby doin' the job."

"Oh-ho, Zoe, you ain't no little slip of a thing no more! Why, I remember when you—" Mal's brain abruptly caught up with his mouth. River looked back into the cab, rolled her eyes, and turned back to watching the sides of the road. "You – when – what?" He shook his head, trying hard to clear it. "_A baby_? When were you planning on telling me this?"

"About thirty seconds ago." Her fingers tapped lightly on the steering wheel. "Or any other time we were gonna be too busy on a job for you to blow a gasket. To blow _several_ gaskets."

"Well, I don't even know where to—"

Mal was interrupted by an explosion, like that of a small bomb detonating, in the cliffs overhead. "What the _go se_ was that?" he shouted, as Zoe struggled to keep control amid the falling debris.

"_Not_ a gasket!" River shouted from the truckbed. "Drive faster!"

Zoe had the truck at max speed for a full twenty minutes before River gave the all-clear. She throttled back and took a deep breath. The three of them sat in silence for several moments, broken only by the rattling of the truck. Finally Mal spoke up. "And here," he muttered, wiping sweat off his forehead, "I thought you were just getting fat."

Zoe gave him a poisonous look. "You known me for how long, sir? Do I seem the type to up and let myself go?"

"In all that long time I've known you," Mal pointed out, "you never got yourself with child any more'n you ever let yourself go. Forgive me for pickin' what seemed to be the less far-fetched."

"They're still out there," River warned them. "Footpath and goat runs. Straight up the mountain – don't have to weave and waggle like we do." She frowned at Zoe. "Why so slow? Not your gas to burn." She glared out over the brown landscape, pulling her scarf closer around her face. "These people aren't the sort we want to meet face-to-face-to-face."

Zoe raised an eyebrow at the captain, who only shrugged. The first officer sighed loudly and yanked hard on the gear shift. Bigger clouds of dust billowed up as the truck surged up the winding path. "Oh," she said, almost as an afterthought. "This baby that's on his way? That's all the discussion I plan to have with you, sir. I ain't giving him up and I sure as hell ain't putting to shore. So there's that."

Mal looked surprised. "Long's we're on the subject of how long we known each other – you ever known me to leave you behind somewhere? 'Sides," he went on, settling back in his chair, "I 'spect you'll be in need of an excellent role model to name the _shao di-di_ after."


	47. Part 8: Chapter 4

V

_Author's notes: Thanks to all who commented to let me know they're still on the ride – it is very good to know that I'm not just standing up on a soap-box ranting and mumbling to myself. ) _

IV.

It was a dusty twilight by the time they pulled into the ramshackle mountainside town. The sand clouds kicked up by the truck didn't die down immediately as Zoe brought the truck up alongside the general store and shifted into park; Mal thought longingly of the recycled-air system onboard his spaceship. It was going to be a long trip back down the hill …

"No time for day-dreaming," River snapped. She was already off the side of the truck and stalking into the store with the first crate dragged behind her.

Zoe raised an eyebrow at Mal as she unfastened her seat restraints. "What's put the bug in her bonnet of late?"

"Well, it ain't like she's ever been quite what you'd call a social butterfly, is it?" Mal opened the passenger-side door and swung his legs down to the ground. "You wait here and guard the truck. You got enough extra weight to tote around without doin' the heavy lifting." He chuckled as her eyes narrowed. "Ah me, if looks could kill!"

" … he said, to the woman with two handguns, a rifle, and five pounds of ammo strapped onto her person," Zoe said, as she hopped down to the dirt.

Mal raised his hands in mock surrender as he moved off toward the truckbed to begin hauling crates down. He was just glad Zoe hadn't noticed the way he'd skirted the subject of River's demeanor – true enough that she'd never been entirely normal, but there had been a tightness to her face, the past few weeks. Ever since the Corgan twins had taken their shot at her, it seemed, and even more-so after the events on the SkyPlex. Now Hatcher was avoiding River, and the girl-child was avoiding everyone else. It was not an ideal situation to operate a crew around, and Mal half wanted to pick up the whole damn ship and shake it until some grudging apologies fell out.

"Sir," Zoe said. With a sigh, Mal turned around. "I swear on my dear mother's grave that no, you are not really fat and also that it was deeply inconsiderate of me to – oh."

The townsfolk had started to emerge from their homes and businesses, peering at the newcomers with hopeful eyes. "Evening," said an older gentleman, who had come out of the same store entrance that River had disappeared into. The crow's feet around his eyes were lined with dark coal dust – he must've come out of the mines just for their arrival. "You'd be the crew Sheriff Bourne hired, then?" He held out one grimy hand for the captain to shake. "Name's Weston. Mars Weston. I'm what passes for a spokesman roundabouts these parts. We felt 's though we ought to make our gratitudes to your folk. A long hard trip up this mountain it is, and you know how it is up here." He blew his nose loudly on his coat sleeve, as he gestured to the weary-looking men, women, and children who'd already begun queuing up at the door to the grocery.

"Yeah, well," Mal said uncomfortably. "We're a long hard kind o' folk." He winced. "_Hardy_. Hardy folk."

"We'd like you to know you all are welcome to such hospitality as we can provide – Miss Nelly at the pub across the way can fix you up with some jiaozi roasted piglet right proper, and Old Gettys what runs the bar down t'other end of town says beer's on the house for the lot of you."

"Right kind of you," Mal said, as he reached up and dragged a crate off the side of the truck. "But as it stands, we got a little girl who's weird enough when she ain't liquored up, and a lady in a delicate condition. So we'll thank you, but take a pass on your generosity. Also?" he continued. "I'd thank you kindly not to engage in any sort of obscure marriage-type ceremonies between me and mine and any of your folk."

"Uh?" said Weston.

"Sir," Zoe said again, interrupting whatever large number of questions Weston might have liked to ask. There was a note of warning in her voice that hadn't been there the first time. "Looks like we got more company on the way."

Sure enough, there were large clouds of dust rising again where those cast by Zoe's driving had already settled. Mal cursed fluently, and jumped up onto the truck bed to begin throwing crates down onto the ground.

River flowed smoothly up the other side of the truck – he hadn't even heard her leave the store – and watched the dust cloud approach. "Well?" Mal demanded of her. "You were the one who was in such an all-fired hurry. You going to get in gear, or what?"

She shrugged, and began tugging at the nearest crate. "Doesn't much matter now. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

"_Jiao ni sheng haizi mei pigu yan_," he informed her. She ignored the insult and shoved another crate to the ground.

A sudden pressure at Mal's foot made him look down. Mars Weston was tugging at his pant leg, a desperate look on his face. "You got guns! You got guns, right? You're to protect us?"

Mal stepped back, shaking the other man loose. "We got guns but no orders or call to use 'em. We're gettin' paid to drop the goods, not play Sheriff Junior."

The grateful look in Weston's eyes had been replaced by one of rage. "Look at 'em!" he insisted, pointing a shaking finger in the direction of the new arrivals. "You're going to leave us to their mercy?"

Behind his back, Zoe stepped back without taking her eyes off the approaching crowd. She quietly took her favorite pistol out of its holster; her foot found the step-board and in another instant she was safely settled in the driver's seat again. Mal could just see her out of the corner of his eye, and breathed a sigh of relief before returning his full attention to the building situation.

The newcomers had filtered in around them now – not too close; Mal was fairly sure Zoe could take off if he gave the signal without plowing any of them under the truck's tires. They were near enough, though – near enough to see, to fill his nostrils with the smell of disease. He looked around between them and the townspeople and couldn't tell a damned difference.

"No!" squawked Weston. "Their shipment got carried off by raiders – this one's ours! _Ours_!"

Mal looked down at one of the newcomers, a prune-faced woman wearing both a miner's helmet and an apron. "You about done blowin' us up, then?"

She shrugged as she wiped grit out from the creases of her mouth. "Truck ain't moving. Don't care to blow up the drugs. Imagine you folks'll be on your way now."

"Imagine we will," Mal said. He backed away and pushed the last crate to the ground with one foot. "Zoe? Move out."

The truck puttered, lurched, and began rolling away. Mal waited until the town had already disappeared over the hill before turning his back on it and joining Zoe in the cab. It wasn't long after that the sounds of gunfire and women's screams reached their ears.

River climbed into the back of the cab and took a seat with her back ramrod-straight against the rear wall. Mal watched her stare into space for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Thought you said those folks were so damn dangerous we ought not to let them meet up with us?"

"No. I said you wouldn't want to see them." She met his accusatory gaze, and asked a question she already knew the answer to: "Was I wrong?"


	48. Bridge 8

V

_Bridge_

_Mal sat alone at the dining table and glared at a cup of tea long since gone cold. Things had begun to shift in the 'verse, and it seemed as if Miranda – as if Serenity – might be the fulcrum for that shift._

_Of course, there'd been hints already. The Corgans' visit hadn't been a coincidence. And now this … Sheriff Bourne had been quiet as he tossed them their pay. He'd read it in their grim faces – they'd seen what he wanted them to see. What he'd intended by it was anyone's guess: an accusation? A warning? A heads-up?_

_Mal shifted in his seat. He didn't fancy being at the pivot point for changes of this magnitude – not these days. Being at the center of things was just another name for having a bull's-eye painted on your back._

_The sound of dragging footsteps made him turn. "Jayne?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. "What's goin' on?"_

"_I got to talk to you," the mercenary informed him. He was holding Vera with both hands._

"_I'm of a mind that we've had this talk before." Mal suppressed a sigh. "I ain't got a wife to swap you for now, and there ain't a treasure in the world would convince me to take Fletcher off your hands."_

"_I ain't offerin' no swap." Jayne extended his beloved gun. "I'm givin' her to you, fair and honest. Take her, already, will ya?"_

"_What?" Mal shook his head. "Jayne, what the hell's got into you?"_

"_Like, as a present," Jayne went on, and cleared his throat. Gun still outstretched, he was looking Mal straight in the boots. "On account of how you came after me. Weren't never a lot of love lost 'tween us, and maybe I made some bad decisions in past days, and then I ain't never really been crew. So you weren't in no way obliged." He swallowed. "So it's as to say … thanks."_

_"Oh, for the love of—" Mal shifted uncomfortable in his seat. "Gorram it, Jayne. I wouldn't leave a yangwei stray dog in Niska's hands, let alone someone who's fought beside me, and even on occasion behind me, with the special extra favor of never yet having shot me in the back." He shrugged. "'Sides, if I'd left you there, Kaylee would've started a mutiny, and I'd be short a mechanic."_

_Jayne stood stock-still, looking uncertain. Mal sighed again. "And no, I don't want your Vera."_

_Jayne made a strange, vaguely constipated face. Mal realized with horror and alarm that the huge mercenary was choked up. Jayne tucked Vera into the crook of one arm, seized Mal's hand, shook it furiously, and then fled._

_Mal sat back in his chair, flexing his slightly crushed hand. Well, he mused, who would have thought? Maybe things changed for the better sometimes, too._


	49. Part 9: Chapter 1

V

**I. Black Sheep**

"These boxes are heavy," grunted Simon, leaning backwards as he dragged a large crate down the boarding ramp. "Are we delivering boxes of rocks now? Because from the looks of this place, they don't need any of that kind of thing."

"The one you've got is full of books, Doc." Zoe was leaning against the interior wall of the ship, just at the top of the ramp, with a clipboard resting on her belly. She'd been expressly forbidden from helping unload by the doctor (as well as Wash, Mal, and Kaylee), so she'd settled for a supervisory role instead. "The heavy burden of knowledge, I s'pose."

After straining uselessly for several moments with a heavy box, Marnie opted to press her back against it and shove herself backwards with both legs. "Oof! I bet Inara's sorry she's missing this. Y'know, makin' love on satin sheets versus heavy labor in 350-K weather." She reached the ramp and the box went bumping down to the ground, leaving her sprawled at the top. "What a choice."

"It's only three hundred and four point two Kelvins," River said, and threw a lighter box down to her brother on the ground below. "Thirty-one point two degrees Celsius. Or eighty-eight point one six degrees, in Fahrenheit units."

"What's she on about now?" Jayne asked irritably. He was still limping, although not as badly these days, and he had a box under each arm. "Where's Fahrenheit? I thought we was on Three Hills."

"That's chattering I'm hearing," shouted the captain, pounding his way down the stairway. "Chattering is on my list of 'things that delay me getting good, solid money in my hands'. You know what that means?"

"Sure do." Kaylee pressed a small-denomination coin into his hand and grinned insolently at him. "There's some good solid money. Now we can chatter as much as we want, right?"

"I'm keeping this!" the captain warned her as she trotted away to retrieve another box. "Going directly into general funds and upkeep."

"So you're going to use it to buy her engine parts?" Zoe asked dryly. She had moved down the ramp and taken a seat on an already-unloaded crate. "Excellent choice of vengeance, sir. Remind me never to cross you."

"Last one!" announced Jayne, and dropped a large package wrapped in brown paper into the dirt. He pulled off his work gloves and banged them against the side of the ship, sending dust clouds flying. "'Bout time, too. Could just about eat a horse."

"Good thing we weren't hauling horses, then." Mal cocked his head to one side. "Anybody else hear that noise?"

"Prob'ly my stomach," muttered Jayne, but he fell quiet with another glare from the captain.

"Truck engine," said Zoe after listening for a moment. She pointed in the direction of the sound, along a gravel path that curved off to the right and out of their sight. "Fairly sure that's the only way into this blind valley."

"Inclined to agree." Mal's twitched his coat free of his gun hip, and saw Jayne's hand settled on his own holster. Kaylee and Marnie exchanged a glance, and hurried up into the safety of the cargo bay.

"A truck is just a truck," said River. She watched levelly as the old vehicle, covered in peeling green paint, wound around the corner into their view. "Won't bite. Just don't stand in front of it and yell 'go'."

"That a foggy way of sayin' all's clear?" Mal asked; River nodded.

The truck rattled its way up to the spaceship, and puttered slowly to a stop, narrowly missing Jayne. A middle-aged man and woman jumped out of the cab and looked around approvingly.

"Captain Reynolds?" asked the man. Mal raised a hand, which the man seized and began shaking enthusiastically. "Ha! Took us a fair chunk of time to find you, all tucked in the ravine such as this. Name's Cyrus Westand. Pleasure to be doin' business with you, sir."

"Pleasure's all mine," said Mal, "I hope."

"Oh, right!" Cyrus fished around in his rucksack for a moment, and pulled free a small wooden box. "Better to get payment out of the way lest I forget."

"I personally find that empty pockets are a damn good memory charm." Mal flipped open the box's lid, and made a satisfied noise at what he found inside.

"Don't supposed you'd mind helpin' Sue and I load up the truck before you all take off?" Cyrus asked. "Would help us make up the time we lost, drivin' around looking for you good folks." He grinned knowingly. "Might help us keep you in mind, when we're lookin' to do business in future."

Jayne grunted irritably, but set to work when Mal gave him the Look – the captain planned to get as much mileage out of the mercenary's post-Niska gratitude as possible. Kaylee, Simon, and Marnie followed suit, with the standard measure of grumbling. River joined in silently, too.

"Can't tell you how much we appreciate it," Cyrus said, as he grabbed one end of a cargo crate while Mal lifted the other. "You'd not believe how Shepherd Book's been going on and on about getting this stuff for the school-kids hereabouts."

"Beg pardon?" said Mal.

…

Mal, Kaylee, Simon, and Zoe brought the mule out of the cargo bay, while Inara and River squeezed into the cab of Cyrus's truck. Jayne took a seat in the bed of the truck so that he could stretch out his bad leg; Marnie joined him so that she could more effectively nag him to stretch out his bad leg. It started raining on the trip back to the town; they huddled together miserably and waited it out.

The church was in the center of the town. This planet was too poor to build a steeple; instead there were sprawling schoolrooms and bunks built up around the apse. It was enough like the one that had been built on Haven that Mal could recognize it easily. He found himself feeling the urge to knock on the door of the nave. It wasn't really the sort of place he felt at home in – not these days.

Luckily Kaylee saved him the decision by reaching the door first. She opened it wide and poked her head through. "Hello? Anybody about? Oh."

She held the door open behind her, and the rest of the crew filed past.

There was an old man standing in front of a pewful of small children, their little legs danging as they made eager chalk scratches on slates. The man himself had white hair and skin the color of mahogany. He was taller than Derrial had been, and thinner as well – frailer, maybe, in his later years. But there was no mistaking the family resemblance.

"Shepherd?" asked Zoe, as Mal's voice caught in his throat. "You of some relation to Derrial Book?"

The old shepherd looked around at them. "Are you associates of my brother?"

"I suppose you could say that we were," the first officer said quietly.

Book pointed a shaking hand at the group. "How _dare_ you desecrate this place – and in front of children? We're no threat to you, not anymore. Be gone from here, and tell Derrial never to darken my doorstep with your shadows ever again!"


	50. Part 9: Chapter 2

V

II.

"Beg pardon?" Mal asked for the second time that day.

"You heard me," Book insisted, and turned to his students. "All of you should go home now. The lesson is over for today." As they trotted obediently out the door, the shepherd returned his attention to the crew. "Haven't you purple-bellies done enough to this town – aren't you doing enough still? Must you subject our children to such a sight once more?"

"What sight?" asked Kaylee, nervously looking around herself. "What? Is something hanging out somewheres?"

"I got to say, Shepherd, I don't think we're operating on the same wavelength here," Mal informed him. "Not sure what you're going on about, and frankly I'm not real keen on being tarred with the same purple brush as the Alliance." He shook out his jacket with a significant look. "Hmm. A coat. That is brown. A brown coat!"

"I ..." The anger faded slowly from Book's face as he looked around. "But you … I thought you said you were friends of Derrial's."

"We were," Inara said gently. "We've come to give our greetings to his family. To let you know he's passed on."

"Oh." The shepherd inhaled sharply. "Well. That's something."

"Now you listen," Jayne cut in angrily. He stalked forward, looming over the frail old man. "That brother of yours was a good man. A damn good man. I ought to know, because I ain't one."

"Ah. A thug." Book shook his head disgustedly. "Now that is more like the company Derrial used to keep." He turned his back on Jayne, and walked away from the crew. Old bones creaked as he climbed the steps up to the pulpit, and gripped it with both hands. "So Derrial is gone, and you have come to finish the job he started fifteen years ago. Not in front of a full congregation this time – but then, it is a new era, and after Miranda it seems that 'waves tend to travel farther and wider than they are meant to. Fewer eyes are better." He stood over all of them, magnificent despite his well-worn robes and advanced years, and glowered down at them as they stood staring. "Well? Are you here to make a martyr of me, or not?"

"I'll go with _or not_!" Mal said vehemently. "Gorram it, you wouldn't know irony if it sold its hair to buy you a watch-fob, and yes, Inara, I have read a book as well as a poem, I will again ask you not to faint. Preacher, it's mighty funny for you to go on about Miranda when the folk right in front of you are—"

The window of the nave blew inward as an explosion sounded outside in the town square. Mal cursed and threw himself over Kaylee as more bombs detonated close by. By the sound, he made it out to be cluster bombs, maybe three hundred yards from their position. Before he could shout the information out to Zoe, the bombing was already over, silence washing over them as dust and loose shingles from the ceiling pelted them.

Book picked himself up slowly, unsteady on his feet as he brushed debris free beard and hair. "But this makes no sense," he insisted shakily, frowning at Mal. "Why would they go ahead with an airstrike when you're here? Any of you could've been hurt."

"Any of us could've been—what?" Mal scrambled to his feet. "Who's bombing who, and why, and what the hell do you think that has to do with us?"

Book scowled. "Are you or are you not friends of Derrial? Haven't you come as representatives of the Regional Governor?"

"Preacher, we ain't here to represent any but ourselves," Zoe informed him, one hand on her hip now. That was a dangerous place for it to be – just that little bit closer to the pistol on her belt. "We come to pay our respects, and weren't of a mind to get blown up for it."

"What'd you do anyway t'get the local G-men blowing the _go se _out of you?" Jayne wanted to know; Kaylee elbowed him in the ribs.

"We sent the local troop garrison packing," Book said, and crossed his arms. "Not quite tarred and feathered. "Haven't ever been too keen on enforced curfews or trespassing laws such as keep folks off their own land in this town. Derrial learned that well enough."

"Shepherd wouldn't have—" Kaylee protested, but Mal cut her off.

"So you're having some troubles with the local Alliance," he said; Book nodded curtly. "Well. Ain't that coincidental? It happens that we make a living takin' care of troubles." He didn't see Inara shifting uncomfortably behind him, or Marnie shrinking behind Jayne, or the suddenly cool look on Zoe's face.

Book hesitated a moment, looking down at Mal's outstretched hand with some confusion. "And you were friends of my brother's?"

"Sure enough." Mal grinned as Book accepted his hand and shook it firmly. "'Course, we're gonna need some help if there's a full garrison on your ass."

"We have plenty of able-bodied men and women in this town," the shepherd informed him. "If you have the firepower to back them up, that is. And of course we'd compensate you for your time …"

"And bullets," Jayne put in.

"And bullets," the shepherd agreed. "Not much, mind you. We're not wealthy folk here. But we do save for a rainy day." His eyes narrowed. "Didn't count on it raining bombs, but you play the hand the good Lord deals you. And you won't see a dime till the work's done."

There was a shrill whistle somewhere overhead, and the church shuddered faintly from another distant explosion. "We should get to the shelter," said Book urgently, and pointed toward the back of the sanctuary. A dirty curtain covered a small doorway. "It's under the whole town, everyone'll be heading down there. We'll be able to plan from there."

"And not get blown up, I hope," Marnie muttered. She and Kaylee wasted no time, pushing aside the curtain and hurrying down the stairs that had been concealed behind it.

"Just one last thing," Book said, grabbing Mal's arm with a surprisingly strong grip. Zoe paused in the doorway, holding the grimy curtain away from herself with one hand. "Don't mention to anyone else that you come here by way of knowing my brother. They won't be interested in hearing from one of his ilk."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mal said, and disengaged his arm, none too gently. _What am I doing?_ he couldn't help but wonder. Sure, it was a job, but he hadn't a single whit of an idea about the Alliance troop strength, beyond that they had airstrike capabilities. _Am I doing this for Book, or for me? Or am I doing it for the Alliance?_

…

"D'you remember the time that River decided Shepherd's Bible needed some creative editing?" Kaylee giggled and wrapped her arms around her knees. Down here in the shelter, the bombs going off were nothing more than distant thunder. Other than Mal, who was talking to the townsfolk across the way, the crew was huddled together in the southwest corner of the underground bunker. "When we got back from buyin' that mud, on Canton."

"Let's not get to talkin' about Canton," grunted Jayne, pulling his hat low over his eyes as he leaned back against the wall.

"You should've seen him later on," Zoe said, ignoring Jayne. "Scared River half out of her mind by showing up with his hair all undone. You could've knitted a sweater out of the stuff!"

"There was an inappropriate surface-area-to-volume ratio." River was farther away from the others, fidgeting with the sleeves of her sweater. "Prevents efficient diffusion of nutrients across the neural membranes." She put her arms over her head and parroted Jayne: "Let's not get to talkin' about Canton."

"Hey!" shouted Cyrus, waving an arm to attract Mal's attention. The crew craned their necks to look as well. The older man had a small handheld video device, which he was holding in the air over his head. "Damn purplebellies've got infantrymen in town. They're standing right over our heads even now." He spat on the ground, making his neighbor recoil in disgust. "We're like to get gunned down like a bunch of _man yu_ in a barrel."

"Not if I got something to say about it." Mal climbed to his feet, standing with a slight hunch to keep from banging his head on the low dirt ceiling. "I'm apt to think the good Shepherd – uh, the local one, not the more famous and godly type – the Shepherd and I have come up with something of a plan." He raised an eyebrow at his crew. "Kaylee, what d'you say to being the hero of the hour?"


	51. Part 9: Chapter 3

III.

The look of sheer terror on Kaylee's face cut Mal straight to the quick. So he tried not to look at her too long or hard – there was work that had to be done. He'd done similar work – more dangerous, even! – before.

Of course, normally that had involved a small platoon of well-trained and dedicated Browncoats instead of a combat-shy mechanic. Or the payoff had been alerting the 'verse to the government's crimes, instead of saving a small town from taxes and troop garrisons.

When it came right down to it, Mal realized as he pulled Kaylee back from stepping out past the cover of an old tool shed, he wasn't one hundred percent sure of exactly what was in this for him. Sure, there was a solid swipe at the Alliance, but he'd passed up better-paying swipes before when the circumstances were wrong. This was different, this was special.

Derrial Book had died because of Mal's mistakes. Hopefully Mal wouldn't get himself or his crew killed over whatever mistakes Derrial had made all those years ago. Somehow it was important – more than important, it was necessary – to leave this crummy town a little better than it was. To let them know that Book had come around to a better way of thinking.

Still unnoticed, he and Kaylee slunk back behind the general store, moving slowly and all but silently behind the weather-worn shop. From there, they disappeared into the scrub forest, heading back to the valley where they'd left the ship. As they trotted over the rocky ground, Mal couldn't help but wonder just what Derrial had done to earn his brother's hatred so thoroughly. Too bad they'd been forbidden the chance to ask the townspeople to find out …

…

"He was such a nice young man," said Ellie Leong, a wizened old woman in a calico dress. She sat on the dusty ground next to Inara, shelling the peas she'd carried down to the shelter in her apron – _no sense in sitting around with my thumbs up my pigu_, she'd said mildly. "Never happy with living on this old rock, though. Oh, he loved the stars. Always had his head in the clouds, that one."

"How old was he when he left?" Zoe asked.

Ellie smiled sadly and popped a raw pea into her mouth. "Seventeen, and he never looked back. His maw was gone five years by then anyhow, and it was just Jeremiah to look after him all that time. 'Miah – 'scuse me, I mean Shepherd Book! Shepherd Book's still 'Miah's daddy in my mind – never took real keen to Derrial havin' such grand thoughts. Weren't fitting, he said. Ought to be mindful of where he's setting, thought star-farin' weren't for folks such as were born here."

"Pfft," said Jayne. He was fiddling with a pocketknife, stabbing the open spaces between his fingers on the ground. Marnie was looking on with a mixture of dismay and interest. "If _I _can go star-farin', damn near anyone can."

"He was just the kind of kid the recruiters were looking for," Ellie went on sadly. "All starry-eyed and squirrelly. Didn't think twice 'fore signing the papers, and off he went in a cloud of spit-polish and shiny uniforms. Never thought we'd see him again."

"But you did," Zoe said. "He came back?"

Ellie nodded. "No more polish nor uniforms this time, though. He was twenty-five and dressed in plain clothes. Oh, and he cut a handsome figure, that boy, all dressed in black, such finery as we'd not seen in years. He came back all right, and he marched right up to us that he'd grown up with, who'd half raised him, and he said 'We'll be needing to build a mining operation, there's iridium in these hills and we need it, oh and here's some troops to mind that you don't get in the way.' And never you mind that those rocks he wanted was buried under his old neighbors' farms. And when we weren't of a mind to go along with such goings-on …" She pressed her lips together, frowning down at the peas.

"What happened?" Inara asked gently, her hand on the old woman's arm.

"Well, we had to fight back!" Ellie said. She threw a moldy peapod into a dark corner. "Such as we could, at least. Nothing flashy, mind, but damn effective – 'scuse me – darned effective none the less. We slashed tires, jammed sticky-bombs in their mining machinery." She smiled, looking proud and embarrassed. "I got hired on to do the troops' laundry, and smuggled out dozens o' rounds of ammo in my skirts."

"That actually works?" Zoe muttered. "Thought that just happened in story-books."

"I'm guessing you folks playing at bein' terrorists didn't make any friends," Marnie said. Zoe gave her a calculating look; ever since her visit to the SkyPlex, Marnie's accent had been a fluid thing, constantly changing and mutating. Here in town, it had taken on an unusually rural twang. "What'd they do, to shut y'all down?"

"'Miah's poppa," said Ellie sadly. "The old Shepherd. He was the one leadin' the charge – you know how it is, small town like this, the whole place turns on the word of its Shepherd. Well, we were meetin' in hiding during that time, but we still had our weekly Scripture, as is only right. But Derrial found out where we was at …"

"And he shot his pop in front of the whole congregation?" Jayne nodded, his attention still mostly on his knife. "That's grim business. I might've wanted to shoot my pop a time or twelve, but never got around to it." He grimaced when he nicked one knuckle. "'Course, he died pretty young."

"That broke us," Ellie said quietly, and folded her hands in her lap. "The fightin' died down, and the gov'mint men got their iridium. Eighteen farms destroyed, and not a penny thrown to those families for their trouble."

"He was a good man, by the time we knew him," Inara told her. "He died because he had given shelter and protection to Captain Reynolds and his crew. Perhaps it was his shame at doing such a thing, that led him back to the right path – that drove him to eventually become a Shepherd in his own right."

"Oh, sweetheart, I was there that day," said Ellie, shaking her head. "There wasn't a drop of guilt in that boy's face. No guilt, nor no pride either. It was duty, and that was all; and I can't imagine that him replacing blind duty to the government with blind duty to the Almighty did a whole hell of a lot of good." She snuffled a little, dabbing her eyes with the corners of her sleeves, before going back to shucking peas. "'Scuse my language."


End file.
